Marco Paga wrote:
> I don't know what the development brings after OOP but the only way in GUI 
> research is 3D displays. The computer comes again a step closer to the human 
> mind.

Power comes not from accurately modelling reality but from carefully 
abstracting reality into useful metaphors.  A 3D environment isn't 
better because it's what comes after 2D, it's only potentially better 
because it gives us yet another dimension in which to conceive new 
metaphors.

The CLI vs. GUI dichotomy that seems so prevalent in discussions like 
these becomes something of a non-issue when you start talking about 
modal vs. non-modal interaction (something rarely seen in commercial 
software).  There is plenty of frontier left in GUI research that is not 
necessarily devoted to 3D information space, and plenty of good research 
gone to pasture that has not been widely implemented (am I the only one 
here using pie menus?).

As soon as one realizes that any interaction in information space is an 
abstraction then one starts to understand that all of the interactions 
are entirely arbitrary, and that the advances in UI will come not from 
bringing our own limitations into our information space but from using 
that space to help eliminate the (entirely) mental constraints we choose 
to place upon ourselves.

-Jack