Project Looking Glass and OS XI

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Here's a link for the demo video



Basically, it's a demonstration of the potential of the Java Desktop, but it portents for the future of OS X IMO.



The utilitly of rotating a window three demensionally may seem a bit gimicky, but combined with Expose style window management I can see it being quite compelling.



I think Sun is obviously borrowing for OS X in many respects (movie in the dock, hell, the dock itself), but I like the 3D feel. Also, I couldn't quite tell but it looked like the background image would move in a panorama style. This is one hell of an idea, a 360 degree desktop with a background designed to attach some scenary to a particular coordinate.



I'm also an advocate for making icons animated and interactive, but I don't think they did that.



Thoughts?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    giantgiant Posts: 6,041member
    You know, every 3D GUI I've played with has always felt a bit pointless and clunky, but Sun seems to be on to something. Those windows that flip over just make so much sense. I'm not a GUI junkie, but that sure made a whole lot of sense to me.
  • Reply 2 of 28
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by giant

    You know, every 3D GUI I've played with has always felt a bit pointless and clunky, but Sun seems to be on to something. Those windows that flip over just make so much sense. I'm not a GUI junkie, but that sure made a whole lot of sense to me.



    You've gotten to play with this GUI?!



    Yeah it does look ok, I'm curious what you have to do to have those windows behave that way. It wasn't really the most thought out design (I know demo), but having every window turn translucent when the mouse goes off of it?! I noticed they had something like the dock it looked like.



    I don't really get what makes a 3d interface 3d. I mean I don't see how those would be very hard to integrate into OS X. I'm sure QE could handle all of that pretty nicely.
  • Reply 3 of 28
    didnt somone try and make a 3d gui for os x? or was it for x windows that im thinking of
  • Reply 4 of 28
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Well there is this. I have found most 3D GUI's to be missing one key element, a 3D input device to match it.



    There was a lot of cool stuff in that Sun demo, but there were also a lot of bad UI that they were showing off.
  • Reply 5 of 28
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Er... not seeing anything here that MacOS X can't do with a tiny bit of work... all windows are already OpenGL textures on individual polygonal planes in Quartz Extreme. Add a touch of Z, and spin away baby.
  • Reply 6 of 28
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    I *love* the idea that all windows have a back side that can be flipped over (very Alice through the Looking Glass -- I suppose hence that project's name). Inspired!



    That the only thing they could think of using this for was to take notes for each window, though, isn't nearly so inspired..
  • Reply 7 of 28
    flipping a window was the only worthwhile demo they managed. other than that it was kludge. nothing they showed was going to help work flow.
  • Reply 8 of 28
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    I agree with most people here, the notes thing was the only really good thing about that GUI.



    The eyecandy was great and could easily become part of OSX, but the moving the windows to teh side and such, i just don't see the point. How is it different than putting them in the dock, or using expose?



    I just don't understand. Seemed to be little more than eyecandy. Very nice eye candy, i must admit, but still just eyecandy.
  • Reply 9 of 28
    I too found this interesting. I don't know how they are going to get people to want to switch. It would have to be very polished and very good, and more than likely fairly cheap or free. I did think some of the aspects they demoed are kinda neat..but a few are essentially worthless...only time will tell.





    ~ tommy
  • Reply 10 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmo

    I agree with most people here, the notes thing was the only really good thing about that GUI.



    I don't even see the use in that. Watching the demo, it didn't look to me as if there was any indication of a note from the FRONT side of the window. I certainly wouldn't use it if I had to flip the window over in order to see IF I had a note, much less what it was.



    Being able to attach notes to windows and pages could be useful, if you could see there was a note there and that indication didn't get in the way, and you could work with the note at the same time you were looking at the window. Who takes notes on the back of papers if you could take them on the front?



    Quote:



    The eyecandy was great and could easily become part of OSX, but the moving the windows to teh side and such, i just don't see the point. How is it different than putting them in the dock, or using expose?



    I just don't understand. Seemed to be little more than eyecandy. Very nice eye candy, i must admit, but still just eyecandy.




    I agree here. Moreover, I have the feeling that if BeOS was still being developed today, they could do that sort of stuff at the drop of a hat if they wanted to.
  • Reply 11 of 28
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jginsbu



    I agree here. Moreover, I have the feeling that if BeOS was still being developed today, they could do that sort of stuff at the drop of a hat if they wanted to.






    I think that OS X using QE could do that stuff without much tweaking at all. As mentioned before all the framework is there.
  • Reply 12 of 28
    tuttletuttle Posts: 301member
    Technology for technology's sake.



    Can OS X do everything demoed in the video? Yes. It probably already has in one form or another for some time. Thankfully Apple is committed to developing technology to solve real world problems, with a few exceptions like the genie effect.



    Want to impress the world Sun? Implement consistent system wide cut/copy/past and clipboard support in a Linux distribution. Not as leet to demo, but a million times more useful and needed.



    I do think Sun's desktop will help ween the large number of MS Windows/Linux fence sitters over to Linux. The Slashdot crowd has been clamoring for something like this for a long time. They'll clearly see how a 3D desktop is one better than a 2D version.



    The main impression the video left me with is Steve Jobs gives great demos.
  • Reply 13 of 28
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Tuttle

    Thankfully Apple is committed to developing technology to solve real world problems, with a few exceptions like the genie effect.



    Actually the genie effect is a perfect example of how eye candy can be very good UI design. One of the hallmarks the Mac has always been to show the user what is going on i.e. zoom effects. The genie effect show the user exactly what happens when the minimize the window, it goes into the dock.
  • Reply 14 of 28
    tuttletuttle Posts: 301member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    Actually the genie effect is a perfect example of how eye candy can be very good UI design. One of the hallmarks the Mac has always been to show the user what is going on i.e. zoom effects. The genie effect show the user exactly what happens when the minimize the window, it goes into the dock.



    I agree with the principle, but it really belongs in some slick user interface demo or help system.
  • Reply 15 of 28
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Disagree. It is useful right where it is, showing where a window went. If you want to save a few cycles (I hear there are children in China starving for them...), set the Dock Preferences 'Minimize Using' popup to Scaling.
  • Reply 16 of 28
    Rather than flipping over windows, I'd rather just have one neat row of tabs for every application.
  • Reply 17 of 28
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    I think we are sort of missing the point. Right now, looking at this demo, it seems that everything he is doing, flipping the windows, etc, is just eye candy and not really all that useful. However, if developers start developing applications that really use the 3d functionality, then it would become much more than eye candy, and people would start to use the z-plane to actually get some work done.



    as a side note, i about busted a gut when everyone started cheering when he flipped the window to write a note. i mean it is cool, but CHEERING? c'mon, how nerdy are we? it sort of reminded me when everyone started cheering during the jaguar keynote when spring-loaded folders were "introduced"
  • Reply 18 of 28
    giantgiant Posts: 6,041member
    Reason (the famous audio app) is built around the two sided sheet idea.
  • Reply 19 of 28
    Ahhh, remember the Longhorn videos and their "flying windows?" Just because software can do something doesn't mean it should do somthing. Three-dimensions? Average people have a hard enough time grasping two. Stop complicating things. A three-dimensional window is analogous to context menus. It's a "hidden" dimension.
  • Reply 20 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Cosmo

    I think that OS X using QE could do that stuff without much tweaking at all. As mentioned before all the framework is there.



    I don't doubt it. Although isn't QE a 2D graphics engine? In any case I wasn't questioning Apple's capabilities -- I just don't think this is the sort of thing Apple would go for. But I couldn't help being reminded of the old BeOS movies-mapped-over-3D-shapes demos while watching it. It just didn't seem all that new to me.
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