Xref: utzoo comp.arch:4771 comp.lang.misc:1583 comp.misc:2375
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1
From: nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Universal OS (striving for flexibility)
Message-ID: <4724@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Date: 12 May 88 00:58:23 GMT
References: <769@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> <76700017@uiucdcsp> <843@actnyc.UUCP> <4624@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <1090@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpf.UUCP (00704a-Liber,N.J.)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 43

[followups to comp.misc; I can't figure out where else to send it]

In article <1090@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes:
>In article <4624@ihlpf.ATT.COM>, nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber) writes:
>> A universal OS (as well as a universal programming language),
>> assuming that one exists, must be simple and intuitive to use.  I, as
>> the user, should never have to look at a manual or go to a help
>> screen.

>Unfortunately, what is simple and intuitive to one person isn't to
>another.

True, but we are moving in that direction.  For instance:  most people find
a Mac-like windowing interface simple and intuitive (whether they like it
is a differnt story; they can figure out how to use it).

>> [...] if I am looking at someone else's work it should, to me, look
>> like my own.

>I don't expect this any sooner than I expect Turing-capable AI
>programs.

If they aren't going to be Turing-compatible, then what kind of AI programs
do you expect?

>Style is too many things, including things too subtle to
>easily change.  What you are asking for, in essence, is something that
>looks at (say) a program, deduces what it does (as distinct from how it
>does it), and re-does the same thing the way you would have done it.

This is what I am expecting in the far future (3 years :-)).  Right now,
though, is it asking too much to have an editor indent a program the way I
use indentation, or suggest that I define one keystroke for something that
I do a lot that requires many keystrokes (for instance :g/^>/s//| in vi)?
With current software technology, we have programmable editors.  I want
that to go one step further; I shouldn't have to program it; with some
heuristics, AI, and the ability to study my keystrokes an editor should be
able to make life a little easier for me.
-- 
 _ __			NEVIN J. LIBER	..!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1	(312) 510-6194
' )  )				"The secret compartment of my ring I fill
 /  / _ , __o  ____		 with an Underdog super-energy pill."
/  (_