C70:editor-people (06/10/82)
>From CPR@MIT-XX Thu Jun 10 02:05:21 1982
All this flap only points out how backward-looking we are. I thought
we were supposed to be discussing the way things "ought to be".
I want an editor which lets me flip through pages of text as easily
as papers on my desk, and that includes whipping them around in any
dimension (have you ever seen the more sophisticated newspaper
layout systems? Rather special-purpose, but they give you exactly
this power.)
While we're on the subject--though I hate to get into this, as it
expands indefinitely without obvious bounds--I'd prefer to meander
about a virtual world, where "editing" is nothing more than manipulating
virtual objects via some tools. For example, why shouldn't I be able
to lay out my working papers over a large, rocky terrain, grouping
and labelling them with signs easily seen from "the air". That way,
I can zoom up, take the large view of my territory (clearly demarcated
by fences from the next fellow's (and off, over there, is the Valley
of PARC (etc.))), zoom down on what I want to play with, follow
tunnels to related work (something like Xanadu cross-references),
etc.
Tim Rentsch's notion of intelligent objects is fundamental to this
"world view" (in both senses of world and view). Further, my tools
should be intelligent enough to adapt themselves to what's being
worked on. And, as in the "real world", some tools may not be
appropriate for the job (just as I can use a screwdriver as a lousy
chisel), but if that's what you have in hand, why not?
I don't consider this view of the "editing", or "working", or
"computing" as all that radical. It'll just take time to develop
sufficient computing power to support it. (That's why I saw we'll
have a reasonable workstation when we have the crunching power
equivalent of 1000 Cray-1's.)
/Chris
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