Comment Every OS is bad - no, really (Score 1) 106
I just listened to an extremely interesting talk on OS and Processors. The speakers were developing a 3D Desktop & collaboration environment using Small Talk (maybe one word). It's 1970's stuff, but it's got the flexibility to be tweaked in ways none of today's languages can be, including JAVA. They're not just saying Small Talk was ahead of it's time, more importantly, the time for that kind of software language is Long Long Over Due!
If I understand it correctly, it's because of the idea of late binding. It allows them to make changes to any level of the code including the core without having to rework every other level. Just about (if not) every other OS is built with early binding and though it's faster at first, once you go thought a few upgrades, improvements require more and more rework until it reaches the point that you either start over or learn to live with it not working optimally. MS did start over with NT and it was a prime example because very little written for DOS/Win95 would work in NT. It only took about a decade to finally kill ME! Windows ME that is. I still wonder if ME was meant to flop to pave the way for XP. I know, you don't wonder... You know.
But what you don't know is what a 3D OS could mean. Here's my daydream of it. An OS where the "Wall Paper" can be a real room, fed by sensors that detect people's placement and movements. Say you have a secretary working on a new Croquet OS Computer and once in a while she "zooms" around the "building" to see where people are and how they are doing. They're all wearing PDAs fitted with 3D Viewers so she can talk to them, and they can see her as she "virtually" moves through the building. Say she finds a worker has slipped on a spill in the bathroom and is knocked unconscious. (It's not a camera, so it's ok for her to walk through places like the bathroom). So she can "run" or even teleport to another worker responsible for medical emergencies and they can even "follow" her by watching her in their 3D viewers as they run down the hall to help the injured employee. Meanwhile, she's able to call 911 because she's still sitting at her desk (though she'd probably do it through a virtual phone anyway).
Video conferencing could be Virtual Conferencing in very detailed rooms with high resolution models of CEOs all tracked and mimicked in a 3D conference room. Eventually they could even be able to stand up and walk around each other (or even through each other :-P )
But to make all this happen, the developers are leaning heavily on past technologies that have not seriously been developed until now. Currently the one OS I know of is less than 10 MB and it's in pre Alpha, but it's coming!
Wm
If I understand it correctly, it's because of the idea of late binding. It allows them to make changes to any level of the code including the core without having to rework every other level. Just about (if not) every other OS is built with early binding and though it's faster at first, once you go thought a few upgrades, improvements require more and more rework until it reaches the point that you either start over or learn to live with it not working optimally. MS did start over with NT and it was a prime example because very little written for DOS/Win95 would work in NT. It only took about a decade to finally kill ME! Windows ME that is. I still wonder if ME was meant to flop to pave the way for XP. I know, you don't wonder... You know.
But what you don't know is what a 3D OS could mean. Here's my daydream of it. An OS where the "Wall Paper" can be a real room, fed by sensors that detect people's placement and movements. Say you have a secretary working on a new Croquet OS Computer and once in a while she "zooms" around the "building" to see where people are and how they are doing. They're all wearing PDAs fitted with 3D Viewers so she can talk to them, and they can see her as she "virtually" moves through the building. Say she finds a worker has slipped on a spill in the bathroom and is knocked unconscious. (It's not a camera, so it's ok for her to walk through places like the bathroom). So she can "run" or even teleport to another worker responsible for medical emergencies and they can even "follow" her by watching her in their 3D viewers as they run down the hall to help the injured employee. Meanwhile, she's able to call 911 because she's still sitting at her desk (though she'd probably do it through a virtual phone anyway).
Video conferencing could be Virtual Conferencing in very detailed rooms with high resolution models of CEOs all tracked and mimicked in a 3D conference room. Eventually they could even be able to stand up and walk around each other (or even through each other
But to make all this happen, the developers are leaning heavily on past technologies that have not seriously been developed until now. Currently the one OS I know of is less than 10 MB and it's in pre Alpha, but it's coming!
Wm
