Pretty But Bad

The Perfect OS

The perfect operating system should be simple and non-intrusive. If possible, it should exist on a single screen and always be accessible. It should be clean and take up the least amount of space that usability allows.

Here is a plan for the perfect OS, a description of the entirety of the system's functions and abilities, complete with drawings.

The Platform

As I've already described, the Perfect Home Computer should have a multi-touch screen. It should also support a 2 button mouse with scroll wheel. The mouse functions are somewhat more limited than the touch-screen's, however a mouse is sometimes quicker. Regardless, the mouse and the touch-screen functions are independent and while the mouse shows a cursor, the touching should not.

The mouse has 2 basic controls: The left button, which is used for pressing and moving; and the right button, which is used for selection. This is different than the PC, where the right button is used mainly for calling up a context sensitive menu. The difference is to better map to the primary, that is, touch-based control scheme. I will largely ignore the mouse from here on, simply replace these buttons for the controls I describe, and assume the mouse wheel can tilt for side to side scrolling.

Core Control Methods

There are two basic scales when you talk about an OS, the first are the vocabulary of the second. First, are the Core Control Methods. How the user interacts with the computer are what make up these methods. Clicks, Swipes, Buttons, Icons, and Widgets are all part of this section, and I will try to be as complete as possible.

• Basic Interactions
  • Tap

    A tapping or short pressing with the finger or stylus on the screen.

  • Double Tap

    Like a double click.

  • Slide

    Right after a Tap, the user can slide their finger around the screen. This is like simply moving the mouse around the screen. This makes mouse-based websites function properly and is more natural for some people when dealing with anything like a pulldown menu.

  • Hold

    Like a tap, only the user holds their finger down for a longer time.

  • Select

    While performing a hold, the user also performs a tap/hold with another finger. This is a lot like a click-and-drag selection. Sliding the fingers will select more or less. Releasing with both fingers will leave those items selected, and releasing one finger will drag the selected items to whatever finger is still held.

  • Drag

    While holding on an item, sliding the finger on the screen will cause it to drag. Release it, and it...

  • Drop

    Drop a dragged item to move it to a new location.

  • Grab

    If you add one or more additional fingers, spread apart, to a Hold or Drag, and the object you are holding has the option, you can Grab the object. Grabbing retains the Drag ability, but enables new options.

  • Twist

    If you rotate the fingers performing a Grab around a central point, you'll rotate the given item. This rotation might snap to certain angles, or it might be smooth, depending on the context.

  • Stretch/Shrink

    Spreading the fingers involved in a Grab apart will cause the object to scale up or down. This won't normally cause a permanent change to the file. However, it will cause permanent changes to text selections.

  • Release

    Like a drop, only for Grabbed items. Just pulling your fingers off the screen will release the item. However, you must remove all your fingers from the screen. In this way, you can scale to larger sizes than you can stretch your fingers apart, but letting go with all but one finger, and moving your fingers closer together to stretch the object more.

  • Scroll

    Sliding with 2 or more fingers anywhere will scroll that area if it can be scrolled. Mainly, the main viewing window is the only thing that will scroll, however, other areas might be scrollable and will do so as long as at least one finger starts in that area.

  • Shift/control/alt

    As the multi-touch pad can be used away from a keyboard, requiring these keys would break the system. In fact, the keyboard will not have them at all. I will detail in the hardware what the keyboard will look like. However, it will mainly retain the standard characters for a keyboard, shift, caps lock, tab, enter, backspace, the number pad, and arrow keys (for games). In addition, it will have custom keys for very common tasks. Music/Video controls and the like.

• Widgets
  • Software Keyboard

    The monitor pad will enter keyboardless mode when removed from its dock. The software keyboard comes up as an overlay when something that requires text is selected. This tool will find, or make, a blank section for it to appear and will be as small and non-intrusive as can be.

  • Traditional Widgets

    Most of the traditional widgets are present and function the same as they always have. Buttons, Select Boxes, Text Fields, and so on. Because of this, I won't detail these widgets.

OS Methods

Using the above Core Controls, the OS is built. It will look something like this:

Tapping items on the top bar, in this case email, brings down a list of items. These will be actions/sub programs, and under those, a list of recently used or recently gained items. In this case, the user's inbox. Tapping something on this list will load that item or bring up one additional pane. This pane is for sub-programs and more complex tasks. In this case the contact list.

You can also slide along and down the top bar, although this doesn't make things better or faster, it is more natural for some people to do it this way.

You can Double Tap on any item to do the default action for that item, or in the case of programs and sub-programs, to bring the last used item to the for-front. If you Double Tap on a menu item when you are already viewing that last viewed item, it switches to the item used immediately before that one in that program or sub program. In this way, you can quickly toggle between multiple tasks.

Where the top bar is used for main programs that take up the entire screen, the bottom bar is used for stand-alone or background tasks. Music, Video, and so on. In this case the user has Tapped the Instant Message tool. This brings up their buddy list. The music tool would bring up a currently playing box with player controls for when the user wants to control music away from the keyboard. Video lets the user take the monitor to a different room and still be able to watch his DVD.

The user has also tapped his Mistress buddy, which stores the conversation they have been having. In here, he can tap the text field to talk to his Mistress.

Tapping the IM button again, or a top bar button, or any other bottom bar button will take the IM items off screen.

Important Note: The image shows both the top and bottom bars being used at the same time. You can't do that, I merely did that to save space.

The settings button would bring up the settings I talked about before. These are mainly controls for scroll speed, double-tap/click speed, mouse speed and other usability controls.

You can drag and drop selections of items from one section to another. You could select all those emails and drag them to the word processor button and drop them to add them all one after the other into a new document. This action is mainly for transfer from one media type to another. It can also be performed from the search pane.

What is this "Search" you speak of?

There is no "file system" in this OS. Sure, there actually IS one, but it is never actually rendered to the user. Instead, it shows them their most recent items on each menu in the extra space. Also, there is a search feature that can be accessed both in the bottom right and in each program's own toolbar at the top. For individual programs, it searches specific kinds of files, the main search is more robust and searches all the user's data.

Rather than a system of folders in folders, which forces the user to remember where he put things, this system uses compound tags. As part of each program's tools, the user can alter default tags and add entirely new ones if he so chooses. Many of the default tags are used by more than one program, letting the user search for, say, everything they made in the month of July in 1996. These tags are compound, because they have 2 parts: a Name, and a Value. The name would be something like Date, or Group, or Name, or Format. While value is what that name's value is for that particular file. 1996/07/28, Conference 96, My Presentation, Presentation.

The default tags have more complicated formats and are read differently by the OS and rendered differently. The date, for instance, can be searched by ranges and months and days, for more complete searching. The group tag is added with a combo box that lets you enter new values or select an existing one. This makes the tags more usable and structured.

One item I didn't include is mobile media. Place a CD-R in the CD drive and the CD pops onto the bottom bar. Drag data to it from the search box or wherever and it will be loaded on the CD, tap the cd and you can burn it, or eject it. Same goes for other mobile media. Media from other platforms, like windows, will have as many tags auto-filled as possible. And tags will be included in burns and transfers in a text file that this perfect OS will understand.

The power of this system is truly remarkable. Say, for example, the user is going to be speaking at a conference. He might have a speech he wrote, a presentation, various photos, a video, and some music to play in the background. He could tag all of these in their group tag with something like "Conference 2015" and when it comes time to go to the conference, all he need do is search for that name in the group tags and drag and drop them onto a thumb-drive. No missing files, no remembering where he put them. But lets say he did this months in advance and doesn't remember what he called it. He could search for the time-frame he remembers, in a format he knows he used, with groups showing, and when he finds it, he can double tap on the group tag he likes and it will redo the search looking for just that tag. Easy as pie.

In addition to all this, all software will store an undo file for each and every file. This is a complete undo system with every action undoable and stored forever.

And lastly, there is no more save. All saving is done in the background automatically every time the user makes a change and has paused for a moment to think. Also, there are 2 replacement choices in the tools for the programs. Toss in the Trash, and Dig through the Trash. They do what they seem to. As space is needed, the oldest trash items are removed first, otherwise, the trash stays forever.