SoylentNews

(This is the 41st of many promised articles which explain an idea in isolation. It is hoped that ideas may be adapted, linked together and implemented.)

This is not a troll to tell people to use the command line. When my focus was making better implementations of digital paper, my ideal GUI was a data-centric system where digital lined paper was for writing, digital plain paper was for drawing and digital graph paper was for diagrams and calculations. Sheets could be freely pasted and collated. However, this arrangement is completely incompatible with structured databases, streaming video and process control.

So, as a matter of practicality, my ideal GUI is a mix of twm and Windows95 with extensive tweaks. The most significant change is that all window widgets are at the bottom of a window. This makes the interface agnostic to pointer devices and touch-screens. The typical arrangement of window titles makes explanation of a GUI easier when enumerating from top to bottom. However, for daily use, window captions are more practical than window titles. Likewise, menu lists should spring from the bottom of a window. I am particularly annoyed by the inconsistency of tabs in user interfaces. For example, mIRC has tabs along the bottom whereas Firefox has tabs along the top. And if you use the spyware masquerading as the Chrome web browser, it puts the tabs in the window title.

Next, the clipboard should be a stack rather than a singleton. Some versions of Microsoft Word have nine separate clipboards but this doesn't work outside of the application. A stack of clippings potential allows unlimited items while legacy applications see the top item of the stack. This allows a user to copy multiple items, switch application and then paste in the reverse order. Clipboard functionality may include a firewall. A firewall generally indicates a design failure around a trust boundary. However, a clipboard firewall should prevent accidental pasting between corporate and personal applications.

HDR video and sychronized sound is the default window type. Remoting to other hosts is shown by differing decoration. For example, corporate colors for one window and pink for personal stuff. Restrictions may prevent clipboard pasting to and from corporate applications.

Multiple video planes allow QNX Photon functionality like tint, blur, fog, ripple and displace without leaking data between applications or event latency over network. Furthermore, this abstraction allows one window to appear on multiple desktops. It is possible to share a window among multiple users, possibly with time limits and possibly with read-only access. With device pairing, it is possible for a flick gesture to move or copy a window reference from phone to wall-mounted screen.

I've previously mentioned that it is possible to implement a text console within HDR video; possible to get HDR video through UDP; possible to get UDP through 24 byte cell networking; possible to get 24 byte cells through network nodes with 2KB RAM; and possible for network nodes with 96KB RAM or less to work with USB and/or VGA. Although data passing through micro-controllers at kilobit speed may be agonizingly slow, it is possible to have a fancy full-screen video system which is compatible with a trustworthy section which may provide industrial control, hydroponics, wine brewing or beer brewing (with alcohol yeast and/or opiate yeast). Between writing letters to grandma and watching films on the home entertainment system, it is possible to check the garden, wine and beer. Potentially, this could be one or more menu items in Kodi's menu hierarchy. However, this arrangement would compromise security.