mirror of https://github.com/0intro/wmii
84 lines
3.6 KiB
TeX
84 lines
3.6 KiB
TeX
% (C)opyright 2005 by Anselm R. Garbe
|
|
\documentclass{article} \usepackage{times} \begin{document}
|
|
|
|
\title{Improved GUI concepts for experienced users}
|
|
|
|
\author{Anselm R. Garbe\\ \small garbeam at gmail dot com}
|
|
|
|
\maketitle \thispagestyle{empty}
|
|
|
|
\begin{abstract}
|
|
This article presents the motivation and concepts of the dynamic
|
|
window manager wmii and the graphical toolkit liblitz for the
|
|
\it{X Window System}.
|
|
\end{abstract}
|
|
|
|
|
|
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
\section{Motivation}
|
|
|
|
Most common graphical user interfaces are designed after the WIMP\cite{wimp}
|
|
paradigm, which has dominated the desktop environment
|
|
landscape since late 1980s. While research has been done on alternative
|
|
user interfaces, often the focus targeted more in ease of use and low
|
|
learning curves for new computer users rather than in efficiency and
|
|
power of abstraction.
|
|
|
|
The main reason has been the economical success of computers
|
|
in the normal consumer market, which consists of unexperienced users mainly.
|
|
Our motivation is to change this situation and to provide a graphical
|
|
user interface for experienced users, though we know that this market is
|
|
a niche.
|
|
|
|
There has been done rarly research in the non-wimp GUI landscape for years.
|
|
Back in 80s and early 90s there has been some research in
|
|
this area for the Plan 9\cite{plan9} operating system at Bell Labs.
|
|
Most recent research has been done by individuals only, like Tuomo Valkonen with
|
|
his Ion\cite{ion} project and Lars Bernhardsson with his
|
|
LarsWM\cite{larswm} project.
|
|
|
|
The approaches found in the Plan 9 operating system are interesting, because
|
|
on the one hand they cancelled the Unix tradition to work in Teletype emulators
|
|
and on the other hand, they didn't followed the WIMP paradigm propagated by Apple,
|
|
IBM or Microsoft. This makes Plan 9 the most unique approach compared to the
|
|
classical WIMP world.
|
|
|
|
The main aspects of an improved GUI consists of two things, a powerful
|
|
window management approach and a sane and simple widget set which fits well
|
|
into this window management approach.
|
|
|
|
In the area of improved window management concepts there has been done more
|
|
research, thus there appeared several different approaches. But the area
|
|
of improved widget sets which form powerful applications with a simple widget
|
|
set has been ignored for long time. Instead, the WIMP world introduced many
|
|
widgets which seem to focus on eye-candy, like progress bars, but don't
|
|
fix the essential problems with WIMP toolkits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
\section{Future}
|
|
|
|
|
|
\section*{Acknowlegdements} Following people provided useful feedback or several
|
|
grammar fixes to this article:
|
|
\begin{itemize}
|
|
\item Frank Boehme (1st version of this article)
|
|
\item Tuncer M zayamut Ayaz (1st version of this article)
|
|
\end{itemize}
|
|
|
|
\begin{thebibliography}{99}
|
|
\bibitem{wimp} Ashley George Taylor, WIMP Interfaces, CS6751 Topic Report: Winter '97
|
|
\bibitem{x} X Window System - http://www.freedesktop.org
|
|
\bibitem{plan9} plan9 operating system - http://cm.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/
|
|
\bibitem{acme} Rob Pike, Acme: A User Interface for Programmers -
|
|
http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/acme/acme.html
|
|
\bibitem{rat} Ratpoison window manager - http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/
|
|
\bibitem{evil} evilwm window manager - http://evilwm.sf.net
|
|
\bibitem{ion} Ion window manager - http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/
|
|
\bibitem{larswm} LarsWM window manager - http://www.fnurt.net/larswm/
|
|
\bibitem{vi} Vi Improved (VIM) - http://www.vim.org
|
|
\bibitem{9p} 9P protocol - http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/sys/man/5/INDEX.html
|
|
\end{thebibliography}
|
|
|
|
\end{document}
|