I'm almost positive that this isn't the best place to start a serious discussion concerning a new UI, but what the hey, at least it has a good chance of getting some varied opinions.;)
Before you can have an interface for pipes, you've gotta know how and what they'll be used for. Since I spend most of my time in the MacOS (yes; I know; this'll be changing soon, please don't pre-judge me), I'm familiar with the pipe concept, but not their use. However, with the standard CLI pipe interface, you just pump the output from one program into another, which should be pretty easy to represent graphically:
Element 1) Pipes Appearance) A collection of "nodes" (icons, boxes, what-have-you) which are connected by a simple line through drag-and-drop.
Okay, pipes are taken care of, now we just have redirection left, and we're done. I've only used redirection a few times, and since it's not an ingrained part of my vocabulary, I can never remember the syntax for the bloody things. However, again, if the user is only re-directing one stream, we can simply use the pipe UI. But, since it's possible to redirect more than one stream (isn't it?), we need the capability to add connection points to a "node..." which is where my ideas stop, I'm afraid.;) Surely someone has a brilliant insight into how we can easily and intuitively add connector points. Clicking on a node and selecting a menu item is an option, yes, and should definitely be one method included. But there needs to be something more; possibly including several standard connectors for stderr, stdin, and stdout? Hmmm... I guess only one for stderr would be needed, since the others can be taken care of via pipes... assuming 'tee' is available, anyway. But, I'm ranting now, so I'll just end this here.
There's an OS program for the Mac called FilterTop that basically promised to bring the Unix concepts of pipes to the Mac in the form of tiny filters that were strung together by the app. Info is at
About FilterTop
There are also several screenshots and some nice blurbs that should make things a lot clearer. Something you can't see from the static shots is a simple yet elegant animation - as information flows between filters, the little connector lines fill up. I personally think this is an excellent GUI representation of the entire "pipe" concept, and would probably make a good starting point for someone who wanted to make a similar utility for Linix/*nix
Some screenshots of Nautilus, part of Eazel's attempt to bring us a next-generation file navigation system.
One of the things I find interesting about Nautilus is its idea of 'zooming in' on the standard icon/list views we're used to reveal more information about the various file system objects represented there. While the example screenshots don't reveal much useful information (oh, WOW, an item count!), it at least suggests a drill-down method for further investigating a subset of documents. Combining this sort of technique with a data-soup method would let a user go straight to the file/folder they're looking for if they recognize it in the "big picture" view, or drill-down if they still aren't sure which item they're looking for.
In addition, Tog's latest column discusses some UI niceties he considers long over-due. Part of the column covers what he calls "screen objects." He brings up the concepts of piles, notebooks, and scrapbooks, but perhaps one of the most innovate ideas is how to convey time to the user through icons. He suggests having cobwebs or dust pile up on folders and files that haven't been touched in years, among other things.
Slashdot Mirror
Element 1) Pipes
Appearance) A collection of "nodes" (icons, boxes, what-have-you) which are connected by a simple line through drag-and-drop.
Okay, pipes are taken care of, now we just have redirection left, and we're done. I've only used redirection a few times, and since it's not an ingrained part of my vocabulary, I can never remember the syntax for the bloody things. However, again, if the user is only re-directing one stream, we can simply use the pipe UI. But, since it's possible to redirect more than one stream (isn't it?), we need the capability to add connection points to a "node..." which is where my ideas stop, I'm afraid. ;) Surely someone has a brilliant insight into how we can easily and intuitively add connector points. Clicking on a node and selecting a menu item is an option, yes, and should definitely be one method included. But there needs to be something more; possibly including several standard connectors for stderr, stdin, and stdout? Hmmm... I guess only one for stderr would be needed, since the others can be taken care of via pipes... assuming 'tee' is available, anyway. But, I'm ranting now, so I'll just end this here.
There are also several screenshots and some nice blurbs that should make things a lot clearer. Something you can't see from the static shots is a simple yet elegant animation - as information flows between filters, the little connector lines fill up. I personally think this is an excellent GUI representation of the entire "pipe" concept, and would probably make a good starting point for someone who wanted to make a similar utility for Linix/*nix
Some screenshots of Nautilus, part of Eazel's attempt to bring us a next-generation file navigation system.
One of the things I find interesting about Nautilus is its idea of 'zooming in' on the standard icon/list views we're used to reveal more information about the various file system objects represented there. While the example screenshots don't reveal much useful information (oh, WOW, an item count!), it at least suggests a drill-down method for further investigating a subset of documents. Combining this sort of technique with a data-soup method would let a user go straight to the file/folder they're looking for if they recognize it in the "big picture" view, or drill-down if they still aren't sure which item they're looking for.
In addition, Tog's latest column discusses some UI niceties he considers long over-due. Part of the column covers what he calls "screen objects." He brings up the concepts of piles, notebooks, and scrapbooks, but perhaps one of the most innovate ideas is how to convey time to the user through icons. He suggests having cobwebs or dust pile up on folders and files that haven't been touched in years, among other things.
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