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Opencroquet

Posted by michael on from the thwock-thwock dept.

zymano writes "OSnews has some information about Opencroquet, a 3d operating system worked on by Alan Kay, who also is one of the inventors of Smalltalk, one of the fathers of object oriented programming, conceiver of the laptop computer, inventor of much of the modern windowing GUI. The OS is a 3D environment running through the Squeak environment on top of another operating system. It requires a supported 3D accelerator. Squeak is an interpreted language similar to Smalltalk. Could be ssslooooww. Way cool screenshot."

3 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Real Estate by devnullkac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While I've never used a 3D GUI (other than Quake), the problem I perceive from the outside looking in (so to speak) is that a 15 inch, 19 inch, or even 24 inch computer monitor is an awfully narrow window through which to view the world. My eyes can flit about the physical 3D space of my office quite quickly, but if the virtual 3D space I want to view is larger than my screen, I can't move my eyes beyond the screen edge without using my hands.

    Until this problem is overcome, either with giant screens, head-mounted displays, or some bizarre gesture-controlled scrolling (like head tilts), I can't see 3D GUIs becoming more than a curiosity because they consume too much 2D screen space without giving enough virtual space back.

    --
    What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
  2. Re:mirror of screenshot by Steeltoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nothing amazing to see here...

    They even implement the same bad dialogs as in Windows. Notice in the Connect-form, the http:// link is neither wrapped, nor does it elongate the dialog box.

    I find it amazing that nobody fixes such stupid GUI things and makes a truly generic GUI.

    --
    http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
  3. Re:mirror of screenshot by x+mani+x · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i think the reason it doesn't look too impressive is because it's just trying to show off what the OS's GUI engine is capable of doing. these guys are hackers (really talented ones IMHO), not artists.

    bring in some real artists to work on this and you can do some really nice stuff. think the UI's you saw in the final fantasy movie or minority report.

    -Mani