On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Eric Van Hensbergen <eri...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 9:36 AM, J.R. Mauro <jrm8...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Eric Van Hensbergen <eri...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> The fact that rio and/or acme have a limited usage model with such a device >>> and/or multitouch in general is a shame -- wouldn't it be nice to fix that. >> >> This is a very good point. As much as I like rio, I can't help but be >> aggravated by it sometimes, and it would be nice to have someone take >> a fresh look at interacting with it and possibly solve some of the >> shortcomings. >> > > I think the key here is devices like the iPhone beg a different model > -- rio and ACME were developed for graphical, mouse/keyboard setups > (with relatively large screens I might add) -- smaller devices or > devices with different models (like set top boxes or game consoles) > really require a different set of tools/apps. I think this is one of > the things that was interesting about the Plan B approach -- different > front-ends for similar back ends. I doubt anyone wants to use the > iphone as a developer workstation, but it might be nice to make it an > additional screen for faces, or as the student points out and > additional user-interface to someone's work environment. > > As far as fixing rio and ACME, I would urge anyone looking at that to > come up with a complementary solution as opposed to messing with the > existing model. I don't see any reason why alternative interfaces > can't co-exist which support keyboard-only interaction (ron's smackme > comes to mind as well as wmii's model) as well as multitouch on > laptops (actually the iphone's new cut/paste model might work for > multitouch trackpads -- and while not as natural as the existing > chording method might make ACME useable when one finds oneself without > a three button mouse handy). Another avenue to pursue is looking at > using gestures to replace chords -- it seems like pinch and expand > might be natural replacements for cut and paste. I don't think the > community or the system benefits form limiting our options (but lets > keep them options -- I still prefer chording when possible ;) > > -eric >
Yes, that's sane. The interaction model depends very much on context, and there is no one-size-fits-all interaction model. Being able to switch models on the fly would also be nice.
