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." / (_