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Clutter Reaches 1.0 Release Candidate Status
nerdyH writes "Intel's interesting 3D UI technology has arrived at a significant milestone. Emmanuele Bassi on Monday released Clutter 1.0rc1, commenting 'This is a development release of Clutter 0.9 leading towards the 1.0 stable cycle. It is the first release candidate for the 1.0.0 release.' Clutter is a centerpiece of Intel's Moblin stack for netbooks, MIDs, and IVIs. It aims beyond the traditional 2D 'desktop' UI metaphor, stepping up to a 'theatrical' metaphor in which 2D interface objects are likened to 'actors' moving around on a 3D 'stage,' with developers in the role of 'director.' Also updated Tuesday: the Clutter-GTK+ library, aimed at helping GTK+ developers Clutter up their existing apps."
nerdyGayLinuxUser writes
"AC's interesting 1P technology has arrived at a significant milestone. Rob Malda on Monday released Post 1.0rc1, commenting 'This is a development release of Post 0.9 leading towards the Post 1.0 stable cycle. It is the first release candidate for the 1.0.0 release.' In other words, it's yet another bug fix of yet another in a long line of poorly written, cobbled together with duct tape and twine, Open Source Projects.
Post is a centerpiece of AC's frosty stack for netbooks, MIDs, and IVIs, whatever the fuck those things are. It aims beyond the traditional 'ordinal posts' metaphors, stepping up to a 'theatrical' metaphor in which 1P interface objects are likened to 'gay porn actors' moving around on a 3D 'stage,' with developers in the role of 'fluffers.' In other words, this thing is a massive piece of shit that even it's author cannot justify any need for. Also updated Tuesday: the Cluster-Fuck-GTK++ library, aimed at helping GTK+ developers Cluster-Fuck-Up their existing apps."
Who would have known that the future of Computer Desktop UI would look exactly like a SQL error.. :-)
I honestly would love to see some real innovation in the desktop UI everything else has been nothing morethat adding lipstick and high heels to the old X system from the early years. (Yes even windows 7 and the new osx is a pig in a dress.)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Any demonstrations of the technology in action?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
This is a really bad name for a 3D UI. Next up they'll come up with a way to lose files as you save them, just like your car keys.
Imagine your willy being smacked until it bleeds.
Would it really kill them to stick a screenshot in there, or even better, a movie? Especially since this is, you know, a graphical application?
This really is a common failing of too many open source applications. Not only are we supposed to guess that "cluster" has nothing to do with clustering in any shape or form, but its graphical prowess, its entire reason for being, must be guessed at by nothing more than a wall of text.
Well, maybe I shouldn't complain. They do actually tell us what it is supposed to do, right there on the front page...
Does the "desktop" metaphor really need replacing, especially with something that seems even more precious and contrived? Maybe its just me, but I don't find these concepts useful. I know what a "desktop" is with respect to computers, but it has lost all meaningful connection to the top of a desk. Maybe that's because the only thing typically found on my desk is a computer.
My sense is that the computer has been around long enough that the UI doesn't need to be imagined as a desktop, theater, etc.
I will have you know that I have been a master for over three decades of creating the most stable CLUTTER in every room that I inhabit. It also acts as a deterrent to those who would trespass since by them merely passing through the area, it would inevitably cause a "deskalanche" that I could blame on them.
Oh well, should have patented this....
The opensource equivalent of Core Animation
After struggling through the site, it looks like a big mess that solves no useful problem. I can't find any screenshots, either. Here's the slide show from a conference. But it has exactly one graphic, and that's part of a discussion of how you can use arbitrary functions, like "sine", on the alpha channel. (Using "sine" on the alpha channel is basically the <BLINK> tag revisited.)
Worse, this is a toolkit for C applications. It's not for web use. It's not 3D enough for game development, and it's too much for business applications. Layout has to be done at the programmer level; there aren't GUI tools for layout. (Some games use Flash for 2D GUI elements, not because they run the Adobe/Macromedia Flash run-time engine, but because the tools for developing Flash are available and usable by artists.)
There's nothing inherently wrong with running a 2D GUI through OpenGL; we were doing that in 1997. Softimage|3D worked that way. But it's kind of dated.
And still nowhere near as impressive as this (ogg version)
The next version: 2.0gre2
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
Is it just me, or do all these 3D metaphors and even design-by-metaphor concepts look like very stupid concepts to others too?
If I design something, I do not need metaphors, and they look more like makeshifts (is that a proper English word?) for when you can't come up with ideas yourself.
Basically it's mostly applying existing concepts to something new, where it does not fit.
Then that thing with 3D. Everybody wants to do something new, cool, in 3D. But nobody knows what the point of it is.
If you want an actual 3D interface, it hat so be real 3D. Not only 3D projected onto 2D. And ideally, you have to be able to use it, like you would use a rubics cube. Including using your hands in that way.
If you got such a device, or are designing for such a future device, I'm sure, a good 3D interface (which in fact will be 4D) will be a benefit.
But until then, flat is flat is flat. If you shift it to the side, or make it animate "behind" something else, makes really no difference. It's just smoke and mirrors. And like smoke and mirrors, you will not be very efficient with it. (There's a metaphor for you. ^^)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
You might want to fix the typo in your sig: "Analysis"
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Clutter. Yeah that's what I want on my desktop. Clutter! Goddamn marketing morons.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Maybe that's because the only thing typically found on my desk is a computer.
Ah! So you're saying the typical Desktop (on your computer, on your desk) should display a VM with a computer in it, showing a desktop with a computer, to stick with the easy-to-grok desktop metaphor, right?
With OpenGL cores becoming more prevalent on SoC (System-on-Chip) devices - e.g. TI's OMAP3530 or Broadcom's 7413 - there's a lot more you can achieve graphically on your mobile phone, set-top box etc. despite the relatively slow CPU core which enables the device the be designed and built cheaply. I have a project which targets these types of devices and so spent a few days playing with Clutter. I came away impressed.
It presents a very simple C API for building up 3D scenes using 2D objects (images, text etc.), hiding the complexities of OpenGL from you, as well as the differences between OpenGL-ES (as you are likely to find in the embedded world) and OpenGL proper (as you will find on your desktop PC). As well building up your scene, Clutter handles animation. You can say "rotate this group of objects 45 degrees around the Z axis in 2 seconds, 'easing' them in towards the end". You can also animate along paths, 'animate' opacity etc.
Note that the idea behind Clutter isn't to produce 3D virtual worlds: more to use 3D effects to spice up a 2D UI - think Compiz, OS X effects etc.
Another bonus for when you are targetting embedded devices is that Clutter can do the time critical stuff using fixed-point arithmetic: important if you don't have an FPU.
The docs are a little sparse but are sufficient when used hand-in-hand with the demo code. The only other criticism I had was that some of the examples were out-of-sync with latest commits of the library itself but this may have been addressed in the 6 months or so since I played with Clutter.
a 'theatrical' metaphor in which 2D interface objects are likened to 'actors' moving around on a 3D 'stage,' with developers in the role of 'director.'
what is a theater? and stage? never heard of.