NMR speaks. OSX to us "Piles"?
The Gay Blade delivers
Also news about Shake, FCP and Logic. I can't wait!
Quote:
Right now, these mammalian morsels are homing in like tiny, lederhosen-clad bloodhounds on the spoor of Panther, Apple?s forthcoming revision to its queerly lickable operating system. The first pink, quivering gobbet of GUI intelligence in their jaws: Mac OS X 10.3 will finally see the implementation of the ?piles? interface concept patented by Apple back in the dear, dead days of Copland but never delivered to the desktop. The feature, which has been lobbied for by Bruce Tognazzini and other interface curmudgeons, is designed to ease the clutter of windows in the Finder: The Blade?s sources indicate that extraneous windows will shrink and jump out of the way automatically, rearranging themselves into scaled-down tiles in response to the user?s movements.)
Right now, these mammalian morsels are homing in like tiny, lederhosen-clad bloodhounds on the spoor of Panther, Apple?s forthcoming revision to its queerly lickable operating system. The first pink, quivering gobbet of GUI intelligence in their jaws: Mac OS X 10.3 will finally see the implementation of the ?piles? interface concept patented by Apple back in the dear, dead days of Copland but never delivered to the desktop. The feature, which has been lobbied for by Bruce Tognazzini and other interface curmudgeons, is designed to ease the clutter of windows in the Finder: The Blade?s sources indicate that extraneous windows will shrink and jump out of the way automatically, rearranging themselves into scaled-down tiles in response to the user?s movements.)
Also news about Shake, FCP and Logic. I can't wait!
Comments
I would also love to see the Copland "piles".
Really should come up with another name for that....
The original "piles" idea, which Apple apparently still has a patent on, involves grouping multiples documents into a organizational element (the pile) that's somewhat like folders but provides some interesting visual feedback. Tognazzini describes it here.
But what NMR is describing sounds like something different, like a new form of window management.
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Piles
Apple holds a patent on this one. Developed by Gitta Salomon and her team close to a decade ago, a pile is a loose grouping of documents. Its visual representation is an overlay of all the documents within the pile, one on top of the other, rotated to varying degrees. In other words, a pile on the desktop looked just like a pile on your real desktop.
To view the documents within the pile, you clicked on the top of the pile and drew the mouse up the screen. As you did so, one document after another would appear as a thumbnail next to the pile. When you found the one you were looking for, you would release the mouse and the current document would open.
Piles, unlike today?s folders, gave you a lot of hints as to their contents. You could judge the number of documents in the pile by its height. You could judge its composition very rapidly by pulling through it.
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Sounds like quartz will finally be able to do justice to the rendering...
Sounds Taster-iffic!
Piles are a great idea as long as you don't imagine them replacing folders (can you imagine the Applications pile?!). They actually make more sense than folders for small collections of documents, and they're especially nice when combined with a slightly enhanced Finder: Imagine grouping a bunch of documents into a pile and sticking them up in the toolbar, or into the Dock, where you could move them to a new location or open them easily. I seem to recall NeXT having something like this, actually.
Piles don't scale up (to lots of documents) well; folders don't scale down well. They're perfect complements to each other.
Maybe Apple will fold in some of their other novel ideas that Quartz could execute nicely, such as cobwebs on icons of files that haven't been modified in a long time. As any fan of labels can tell you, visual feedback is instant, and that's a good thing.
I know a lot of people (myself included) who use the desktop to keep current docs that they're working on before they get filed away....just like real life. Of course, the more stuff I'm working on, the messier my desktop - piles would be an intriguing solution to this.
Plus, this correlates really well with a lot of ideas about the "Spatial Finder" (not all of which I agree with- see http://arstechnica.com/paedia/f/finder/finder-1.html). For quick reference, people can usually remember that they dropped the document in the pile over in the top left of the screen, but it takes a little more cognition to remember the full path to the document on the HD.
Maybe Apple will fold in some of their other novel ideas that Quartz could execute nicely, such as cobwebs on icons of files that haven't been modified in a long time.
Now we're talking... let's really drive home the "G" in GUI!
rr.
Originally posted by der Kopf
I have the distinct impression that this thread is not about interface or even computers at all. The distinct impression that something is terribly off.
Barto
I had predicted there was no such development going on for better window management because of the direction Safari was going. But I guess there's miscommunication everywhere inside Apple.
::ducking out the window and running down the street giggling::
Barto
It suddenly made me think about the limitations of having your office in 'just' folders.
So far, 'X' is only a glorified version of 1984.
There's been no real revolution or redefining of the interface. And now we have the pending power of the 970 and the underlying technologies in 'X' with Quartz and QE...it's about time for fundamental changes.
And surely Apple's the company to deliver with their traditional style and elegance.
'X' with Jag' is a stable, modern OS with much promise. Maybe Panther will give us a glimmer of something radical that will leave XP gasping. There needs to be something more fundamental between the two than a little bit of graphical lushness.
Lemon Bon Bon
Originally posted by Lemon Bon Bon
Maybe Panther will give us a glimmer of something radical that will leave XP gasping.
Gasping for how long? A year or 2...before MS implements a hacked up copy?
Imagine a stack of windows, compact and organized, that can be placed anywhere on the screen. Instead of the current flat, two-dimensional line of windows in the Dock, or at the edge of the screen... The stack would provide visual feedback when rolled over. Stacks could be unstacked to expand in a single option-click, or a single window could be plucked out to expand. It would be the first (gentle) introduction of three-dimensional interface, and would serve a purpose -- to reduce window clutter.
Of course, it would be an option, as this would appeal (I would think) to more advanced users.
It's even possible Apple could introduce the idea of stacks both on the desktop, for files, and for windows, at the same time...
edit:
Here's a crude pictorial example of this idea.
low-fi
Apple holds a patent on this one. Developed by Gitta Salomon and her team close to a decade ago, a pile is a loose grouping of documents. Its visual representation is an overlay of all the documents within the pile, one on top of the other, rotated to varying degrees. In other words, a pile on the desktop looked just like a pile on your real desktop.
To view the documents within the pile, you clicked on the top of the pile and drew the mouse up the screen. As you did so, one document after another would appear as a thumbnail next to the pile. When you found the one you were looking for, you would release the mouse and the current document would open.
Piles, unlike today?s folders, gave you a lot of hints as to their contents. You could judge the number of documents in the pile by its height. You could judge its composition very rapidly by pulling through it.
It seems to me that piles could be implemented in a pretty cool fashion. I think OS X definately has some screen realestate issues, and could benefit from some creative UI metaphors along those lines.
off topic: hey hobbes, what's that desktop pic you are using? is it a live update?