unity-design team mailing list archive

["C. Cooke" <ccooke-launchpad@xxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 11:52:32PM +0100, supernova wrote:
> > At a very basic level, what the HUD does, is to enable the computer to adapt
> > to the human, instead of forcing the human to adapt to the computer. Explain
> > to me how that's not different from the computers of the 80s.
> +1
>

... Okay. 

Now, to prevent misunderstanding: I really love the idea of the HUD.
It is one of the best things to be announced for Precise, I think -
not least because it makes things better for both normal *and* power
users (I use focus follows mouse. The global menu makes that an issue
with non-maximised windows, although the f10 shortcut helps a lot. The
HUD is a *better* solution to it all, and it means I don't need to
take my hands off the keyboard. And it's better for everyone else, too. 
That's lovely).

So, how does the HUD make the computer adapt? All I've seen of it so far 
is providing a new (and much better) interface to menu commands than 
we've had before. Evolutionary not revolutionary, in other words. So... 
what have I missed? How does the HUD make the computer *progressively*
change what it's doing to make the user's life easier. 

-- 
for((P=10**8,Q=P/100,X=320*Q/(`tput cols`-1),Y=210*Q/`tput lines`,y=-105*Q,v=-2\
20*Q,x=v;y<105*Q;x=v,y+=Y));do for((;x<P;a=b=i=k=c=0,x+=X));do for((;a*a+b*b<2*\
P*P&&i++<99;a=((c=a)*a-b*b)/P+x,b=2*c*b/P+y));do :;done;(((j=(i<99?i%16:0)+30)>\
37?k=1,j-=8:0));echo -ne "\E[$k;$j"mE;done;echo -e \\E[0m;done # Charles Cooke