LCARS Themes in Development 55
mr100percent writes "I'm sure most Slashdot readers remember the computer UI from the Star Trek universe. Now, a number of developers are at work making LCARS themes, including one for Nokia tablets. There's even a Standards Board, with a flash LCARS demo." Several of us here in the office had the opportunity to test out the Nokia 770 at LinuxWorld San Francisco. The "cool factor" of a UI like this may even outweigh some of the downsides to the device since most of them were interface difficulties.
Nothing for you to see here (Score:2)
And here I was... (Score:2, Funny)
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Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. (Score:2, Interesting)
"Functional" and "Futuristic" don't go necessarily hand in hand, and the latter always has to take a backseat to the former.
Enlightenment DR16 theme (Score:2, Informative)
Some freshmeat searching reveals that there's themes for GTK+ too at http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/lcars_/ [freshmeat.net]
I used to use this theme years ago to show off, although the thick vertical bar at the left of the windows sort of wasted space on the 800x600 monitor.
LCARS is an ugly ulgy interface (Score:1, Informative)
Cardasian interface on the other hand... awesome
dig those beeps!
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Can be useful (Score:3, Insightful)
Think that you have 5 warnings and one 1 critical message. On PC that would take 6 message boxes popping on screen. In LCARS you can blink some some of the buttons for warnings and pop-up message with critical information. It looks more uniformed that icon in tray blinking. Or MS Clippy
Another good advantage is that system is designed to use touch screen. So nice big buttons and everything generally easy to read.
Which is good in places you don't have space for fully blown PC + monitor + keyboard. Like in hospitals. It's much easier to clean and disinfect screen that keyboard. Not to mention that staff don't need to learn how to use computers, only some fancy GUI.
The only thing that project needs is proper standardization - if not all users will be totally lost. And every company will use it's own model.
Re:Can be useful (Score:4, Funny)
That'll go over great in a factory (Score:2)
"How much of my time and money you WASTE trying to make this automated weld station look like it belongs on...what did you call it, Eugene?...(the starship "Enterprise")...the startrek enterprise!? This is a manufacturing plant, not a dork convention. Get in here and fix it.
I don't understand the purpose of it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, I am a Star Trek fan and certainly LCARS is very exciting to use, especially while imagining being on a starship (!). It may also be useful for certain real-life situations like Star Trek conventions or even in tactical systems' consoles in military ships or airport terminals...but it does not seem useful as an altenative for desktop GUI.
I also did not understand the term 'LCARS hardware'. They say in a link that they are developing such a thing. If it is not part of the fantasy, then what is it? it certainly can not be a massively parallel computer with AI like the one of the USS Enterprise, because such a beast is not possible yet.
Re:I don't understand the purpose of it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Text, is the new GUI.
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ncurses.... nfoiled ngain.
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Text is the anti-GUI.
GUI is great for novices discovering interfaces, but they're slow. I once wrote up a step-by-step of how to fire a photon torpedo via a standard GUI. "Tactical... Weapons
Needless to say, it's too slow for pasting the Ferengi.
There's not a problem training your tactical officers with slow-to-learn, fast-to-use computer interface.
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The purpose would likely be to address the concerns you latter mention and provide a uniform way of avoiding them.
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CD's invented because of Star Trek? You do know we had a medium very similar to CD's before Star Trek right? If you replace "needle" with "laser", the rest of the technical implementation will follow. All it takes is a LaserDisc to show you the missing link.
And obviously, cordless phones were invented due to Star Trek. Even though Star Trek was probably broadcast over radiowaves just like the ones we use for any other kind of wireless technology. All they did
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While I am a Star Trek fan let us all get a grip. Star Trek was a reflection of the time. Star Trek existed because of the space race. As a tiny child I enjoyed watching the Apollo missions a lot more than than Star Trek.
The space program is in large responsible for most of the current technology we have today. Star Trek really was the cultural/entertainment relfection of the space program. To put it bluntly the space program was
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That should read from a instead of or. like this..
Now, this isn't to say that some one else wouldn't have invented a cdrom from a record player because of other developments.
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X11 was released in 1987. The first X was released in 1984, so was classic Mac OS. The Amiga and Atari ST were released in 1985.
You'r enot supposed to "click" (Score:2)
Anything that looks like a button can be pressed.
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Some of us have problems with that frst hurdle.
*teleports back
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I've always felt, despite the gimmick factor, an LCARS styled interface showed promise of being a fast and efficient way to completing tasks and accessing information.
You would have to move away from showing useless information like they do (hence all the non-clickable buttons).
LCARS is the Lotus Notes of the 24th century (Score:5, Funny)
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Tried it, deleted it! (Score:1)
Just dont use your 770 in the sun with this theme, its basically unreadable and I did not have the time to fiddle around with the colors. Cool idea, bad implementation (I hope the developers will follow some additional ergonomy guidelines)
Want to set up an LCARS interface on a tablet... (Score:1)
I've set it up with Win 2K w/ SP4 & all critical updates. It loads any software by way of a wireless card, sharing out a folder & the DVD-ROM on my laptop.
I've been a trekker for a long time, and m
ooh (Score:1)
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Awesome and intuitive! (Score:4, Funny)
The only downside is the extremely dramatic expression of concentration you need to exhibit while using it.
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I believe it's been explained that the panels are user-configurable. Each user can have their own layout of how they want stuff, and presumably can change it whenever they want to. I can do it today with KDE, so I see no reason LCARS can't do it too.
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Congratulations. You've just (re)invented AppleScript!
-Mark
Intersting concept, but really missing the point (Score:3, Insightful)
After looking at the Flash demo, I think it's an interesting concept. I've seen the LCARS concept tried on the PalmOS, and on the PC, but I think they always miss the point. LCARS implementations are always filled with Star Trek logos and references. Why? And they're always filled with lots of meaningless, superfluous eye candy that simply serves no purpose other than to closely imitate a Star Trek screen. (For example, the upper right section with the flashing numbers.) Yes, it looks cool, but what's the point? Are LCARS designs supposed to make us roleplay Star Trek, or are they supposed to leverage concepts to provide a more productive and useful user interface?
obnoxious (Score:1)
minimal.
Sure, it looks cool - from a distance, glanced over by a TV camera. Where it was created, and meant to stay.
I like star trek and all, fun shows - but christ. Let LCARS die, or at least continue its life where it belongs - in fiction. It's a terrible idea to find
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Comparatively, nobody is designing and building houses to look like the Enterprise on a day-to-day
Neat idea but lets consider usablity... (Score:1)
All the ?random? colors and numbers are useless fluff, get rid of that junk and start with basic functions, like how submenus will come before the elbows, with p
Not to paraphrase Shatner, but ... (Score:2)