[lively-kernel] Waving the red flag

[Philip Weaver]

Hello Richard,

In April you wrote: "What would it take to make it easy to construct and
navigate such a zoom world in Lively Kernel?"

I hope you can spend some time to answer this question with a drawing:

   - http://tinyurl.com/livey-mockups/
   - http://www.lively-kernel.org/repository/lively-wiki/index.xhtml

Thanks,
Philip Weaver

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:16 PM, Philip Weaver <philmaker at gmail.com> wrote:

> Prezi is indeed pretty rad. Patrick, please reply and explain more about
> the zebra and paths. I have not looked closely enough.
>
> I think that *when* a zoomable user interface becomes a priority that some
> aspects of Lively ought to change. Drag to pan by default. Lasso selection
> via contexual menu instead. (Keep usual single selection behavior.)
> Double-click a morph to zoom to fit (similar to opening a window from an
> icon). Viewports (scrollable viewports) should instead be views to
> subworlds. Etc. But we need some drawings and need to consider "subtlety"
> for a zoomable user interface.
>
> Thanks for writing Patrick. If you are willing to draw mockups for Lively I
> need you. http://tinyurl.com/lively-mockups/  If you want to code, the
> project needs you: talk to Dan, Jens, or Robert.
>
> Peace,
> Philip
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Patrick Shouse <shouse.patrick at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> This description of a Phooey reminds me of Prezi: http://prezi.com. Some
>> concepts from Prezi like the zebra and paths might be useful in Lively
>> Kernel.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:12 PM, Philip Weaver <philmaker at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Richard,
>>>
>>> In April you wrote: "What would it take to make it easy to construct and
>>> navigate such a zoom world in Lively Kernel?"
>>>
>>> I hope you can spend some time to answer this question with a drawing:
>>>
>>>    -
>>>    http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYWzJ6ByFTvFZGhqNmI2cGhfMjc5Z2Q3cjlrZ2Y&hl=en
>>>    - http://www.lively-kernel.org/repository/lively-wiki/index.xhtml
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Philip Weaver
>>>
>>> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Richard Karpinski <
>>> dickkarpinski at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello Dan and everybody,
>>>>
>>>> Smalltalk is wonderful. Making it work in virtually every browser by
>>>> coding the base system in Javascript is very clever and could be marvelously
>>>> useful. Enriching the current code to make Lively Kernel suitable for
>>>> awesome presentations well beyond what PowerPoint could dream of has much
>>>> appeal for me. I love neat things that are useful and can be acquired
>>>> inexpensively in money and time. When such things have unbounded utility,
>>>> Pavlov sets in and I slather and drool. Keep it up, man. I don't mind that
>>>> my shirt gets wet.
>>>>
>>>> But wait. How long does it take for someone to be comfortable navigating
>>>> around in a Lively Kernel world?
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure it's not one of those things that takes weeks to get into, but
>>>> I worry that it might take an hour or two. What I want is a system that
>>>> computer experts can become competent with in only a few minutes. It would
>>>> be truly great if novices could get there even faster. But who knows how to
>>>> build such a system?
>>>>
>>>> Today, I think no one knows how to do that. However, the late Jef
>>>> Raskin, father of the Macintosh and author of "The Humane Interface", did.
>>>> Given a charter to assist in getting around in a patient's chart which was
>>>> impossible to read when fully displayed and awkward to navigate when
>>>> magnified to be readable, Jef used zooming to good effect. He wanted to call
>>>> it a Flying User Interface, not only because he liked flying and it felt
>>>> like that, but especially so he could call it (phonetically) a Phooey. He
>>>> was like that.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, he discussed the system in his book, but he left out some
>>>> details. When computer experts were trained to use the system. they became
>>>> comfortable and competent in less than TWO minutes. But when utter novices,
>>>> who maybe recognized the mouse as a thing to push around, not speak into as
>>>> Scotty did, they became fully functional with the system in less than ONE
>>>> minute.
>>>>
>>>> I really like that. I want that. With such a system I could teach a
>>>> three year old to use it, or a 93 year old, or even a college professor. I
>>>> am NOT kidding, the first and second examples may have time to spare, but
>>>> the prof does not.
>>>>
>>>> Why does it work so well? My theory is that for tens of millions of
>>>> years, our ancestors made it back to the nest, or we would not be here
>>>> today. Thus the talent for geographic navigation is built into our DNA. We
>>>> do not forget where the fridge is or where the couch is. Often we can get to
>>>> such places in the dark. If our computer world is so arranged, people won't
>>>> get lost so often. If we can follow links by rolling into a thumbnail and
>>>> can return by recrossing that border it will seem natural to us.
>>>>
>>>> What would it take to make it easy to construct and navigate such a zoom
>>>> world in Lively Kernel?
>>>>
>>>> Richard
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Richard Karpinski, Nitpicker extraordinaire
>>>>
>>>> 148 Sequoia Circle,
>>>> Santa Rosa, CA 95401
>>>> Home: 707-546-6760
>>>> http://nitpicker.pbwiki.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> lively-kernel mailing list
>>>> lively-kernel at hpi.uni-potsdam.de
>>>> http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/listinfo/lively-kernel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> lively-kernel mailing list
>>> lively-kernel at hpi.uni-potsdam.de
>>> http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/listinfo/lively-kernel
>>>
>>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/archive/lively-kernel/attachments/20100630/eb5c2fd6/attachment-0001.htm