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Posts: 4,783 | Thanked: 1,253 times | Joined on Aug 2007 @ norway
#74
Originally Posted by Texrat View Post
In my opinion what's called for here is a revolutionary approach that throws old paradigms out the window and starts from scratch. Some time back we had that discussion here but unfortunately it seemed to have ultimately gone nowhere.

I want to forget conventional menus, zooming, scrolling, etc, and come up with an approach that is specifically designed around the tablets' capabilities. That means, IMO, increased usage of gestures and decreased emphasis on things like dropdown menus. Long clicks, finger motions, multitaps, etc. I'll take heat for this from traditionalists I know but something that borrows heavily from Canola, iPhone and other similar approaches.

Out with the old.

In with the new.
while i dont have a problem with the general idea (kde did something similar with kde4, to the point where they found they had to stop talking about the launcher as a "menu" to really get people to think about new ways of launching programs) but im not sure if canola is a good starting point.

this is because the kind of interface they have there only allows for very defined tasks. ones one move on to infinite expandability like what one have on maemo today, one basically have to provide a blank slate and allow each addon/program to create its own interface.

this while at the same time allowing for easy switching between any and all tasks/programs being performed at that moment.

what i would move like nokia to do is take a look at android. provide a set of connectors between different programs so that anyone can write a mail, browser or other program and have it become the default.

so that one could say keep the existing interface, but have the bookmark/browser icon in the upper right corner launch fennec rather then microb, or even links if someone wants to use that.

find a pdf in a mail? if evince is your default, thats what will open.

another option is to drop the program concept completely and go for something like haystack (and "old" mit project im somewhat in love with).

if one go that way, the only interface one would really have would be a file browser. everything else would depend on what files one launched...

the only icon needed then would be one to launch a new file browser window, and some way to swap between existing ones...

a potential example there would be konqueror