Hi Jason,
You've made very good points. I guess a lot revolves around what people
imagine the Desktop is used for (or can be used for). I'd suggest that most
rebsites (including mine) have at least initially seen it as a type of
static browser, but if you add the dynamic/interactive element then it could
gain far more use. E.g I've added a codeconscious.com folder inside of my
local folder - the icons there represent automated aspects of
codeconscious.com website management. So in this case, the desktop becomes a
task based launcher.
In some ways, in these days of flash interfaces (or at least the possibility
of such), it might be considered nice to have more custom visual control
over the desktop by a specific rebsite. E.g if you enter codeconscious.com
you'd pick up the look and feel of codeconscious.com. On the other hand, the
constrained layout we have now allows a user to move around different
rebsites without getting confused on how to operate them.
<Blue sky>
"Desktop" in my mind should point to a common working space for disparate
items. It would be interesting to investigate how different rebsites could
offer up resources to the desktop such that the user via the desktop could
combine them in different ways. E.g if rebsites offer "web services" how
could the desktop enable a user to connect different services together?
</blue sky>
As far as status items go the still present reality of dial-up constrains
certain possibilities.
The google issue is interesting. Some of my rebsite content on
codeconscious.com is already the source for generated website HTML. I aim to
make all content on codeconscious.com available via HTML and View/Desktop.
Maybe some sort of generalised rebsite to HTML generator could made.
Interestingly, if a production REBOL browser plugin was available it would
likely work against View/Desktop.
Overall I think the View/Desktop needs somehow to be incorporated into
people's daily routines. Right now you could probably divide up Desktop into
three major territories - RT, Sites, Library. "Library" because it allows
community additions and downloads is probably the closet thing to a service
in Desktop right now. Maybe desktop needs more "services", but which perhaps
are built on top/via community collaboration. This is where your suggestions
of annotate and share come in, I'm just suggestnig an overall name and a
place to plug em in conceptually. So these services things like:
"Knowledge Base" - searchable archive (distributed hopefully).
"Online Expert" - e.g chat to a really keen contributor(s).
"Code Works" - build an app in real time with others.
It would probably be easier to build these on top of IOS, if IOS became more
widely spread. But while that is true, much of the look and feel can be the
same.
My comments are a bit disjointed but I wanted throw in my AUD$0.05 in so
there you have em/it :^)
Regards,
Brett.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Cunliffe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 5:02 AM
Subject: [REBOL] informal /View desktop survey
> I'd love to hear what other rebolers think about View/Desktop.
>
> What's best/worst about it?
> How much do you use it?
> What would like to improve?
> New features?
> Is it being surpassed by wikiblogs+xmlrpc/rss/soap ideas?
> ???
>
> When I first downloaded REBOL/View, I was thrilled especially by the
> View/Desktop and the potential for a networked community of rebsites. But
as
> time went by I found I stopped using it.
> I feel it is a great prototype design.. but needs work imo. I do not think
it
> can succeed until some issues are addressed.
>
> RT are focused on IOS. Perhaps it is a lot of work to improve View,
perhaps not.
> My impression is that needs a design document describing improvements, how
and
> why. And marking those which are within easy reach as opposed to the hard
ones.
> There are likely all sorts of scripts out there now which can be used to
improve
> Desktop.
>
> Like many aspects of REBOL, there is so much untapped potential already,
just
> using existing tools and characteristics more intelligently.
> What do you think?
> What can we do about it?
>
>
> - search
> hard to find things/scripts/sites with it.
> google is blind to it
>
> - presentation
> one issue is that it only presents rebsites + content as icons. With
small
> numbers this is fine, but the interface soon becomes a victim of its own
> success. To handle larger numbers one needs the option to present content
as
> lists. Filters for type, metadata, date, source, size etc.. All standard
> features in multimedia browsers, but also ones which REBOL could enhance
easily.
>
> - history/memory/documentary
> hard to see what's new, changed, off-line, deleted, ...
> This a big time waster. It should not be hard for Desktop to get
status and
> provide some graphic feedback upfront about access [colored typestyle or
> similar].
>
> - annotate + share
> so you find some cool stuff - what's the best way to add metadata,
notes
> and structure this?
> blogs and wikis have shown the value and interest of dynamic web
publishing.
> What can Desktop learn from them, and vice-versa? How can it be integrated
with
> a wikiblog system like Vanilla?
>
>
> ./Jason
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the
> subject, without the quotes.
>
--
To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the
subject, without the quotes.
