Sphere

Alan Grimes alangrimes at starpower.net
Fri Aug 10 23:02:52 UTC 2001


> So, what would you like it to be written in? Basic? Assembler? Do
> tell.....

=\
Its just too big and I can't even get GCC 3.0 and binutils compiled
right on BeOS. =( I think it can be done without tooo much trouble but I
just don't know what needs to be fixed. =\ 

>> From sphere.txt

U know, I have two completely different versions of that file on my
drive I just discovered last night... The older one reveales much of my
former ignorance. 

>>>>
> "People say that the Graphical User Interface is the solution to all
> usability problems. But what if the user is blind? Or what if the user
> merely has better or more important things to look at?"
<<
> Yes, the triumph of the GUI is often over-trumpeted. The best 
> discussion of the limitations of the GUI I've seen recently is at
> http://www.antipope.org/charlie/linux/shopper/155.html
> (Warning! Charlie is a Perl and Linux man. You won't like some of 
> this!)

I'm not a hard-core command-liner either...
my memory is not that good... =\ 
Still, its a fairly good article. I agree with most of it. 

It should be possible to have several different shells catering to
varrious degrees of 31!73n3$$, I would define a command line as being
easy to use when it can be used in conjunction with voice
synthesis/recognition. That is: It shourdn't require some bizzare
abstract syntax... =\ 

> I think Operating Systems are rapidly approaching the point where they
> are simply commodities. You'll just load an OS (or buy something with 
> an OS pre-loaded) and that's that. We can already see it on the desktop 
> and the plug-in server market. The user will simply have a nice front 
> end and won't have to do more than download the odd update and install 
> a new application. At that point, price, reliability, security and 
> bangs for hardware buck will be all that counts.

Interesting paragraph. 
I think I can do you one better. I want to not only make the OS choice
irrelevant I want to destroy the concept of an OS alltogeather. There
should be computers and there should be programs. Taken togeather,
several programs will constitute what is currently called an
application. 

Computers should be judged by how efficiently they execute programs. Any
computer should run any program. G4 based computers do it with ONE TENTH
the electricity of the P4. 

This goes way way back to how computers were in the good old days of the
early 80's... 

Heck, way back to Kubrick's classic in '68... 

Can you even immagine HAL annoying you with stupid PPP configuration
issues?

It would limply load the protocol software, negotiate with the remote
host and that would be that. The user wouldn't... er SHOULDN'T have to
know jack.


-- 
If your grandmother can use Linux then perhaps she wouldn't mind
admining my server/router and my workstation for me, I just don't have
the time.    http://users.erols.com/alangrimes/  <my website.




More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list