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Lose The Desktop

Today, many developers are working with many desktops at one time. Each computer they administer, or use, has it's own desktop. And in case of embedded systems, or micro controllers, these are communicated with through serial interfaces.

Even modern computers, such as Linux and other Unix systems, have BASH shell or other shell, that is about 40 years old. These shells were created before the graphical environment came into existence, and although they did serve their purpose well in their time, and are very usable on a modern Unix system, they lack the ability of representing data, end user response, graphically.

Remote systems, such as Remote Desktop and X Windows, all are directed towards letting you see a remote computers desktop. It's graphics is sent over the internet, and you can draw it on your computer, at do the basic graphical data that is needed, such as interfacing with the mouse, or interfacing with it's keyboard, as well as presenting it's graphical view.

However, a Desktop does not belong to a File cabinet. Imagine if every file cabinet in the house, had it's own desk and clerk. Every time you had to get some information, even inside your own office, you'd have to go through a desk clerk to do so. This is basically how modern computers and file systems are ordered, they each have their own desktop to present.

Instead of such an interface, it's much more logical that you have your own desktop on your own computer. It is ordered in the chaotic or ordered manner you are used to, with the colors, button shape, that you use daily. If you wish to access a different system, and sneak peek at it's data, it is much more logical that that data, is displayed on YOUR desktop, rather than you sneak peeking at a different desktop system.

This is the heart of Lose the Desktop, it is a call to simply drop all these desktop systems, and allow these systems to communicate with a desktop, or present it's data in such a way, that a desktop can present it graphically This has been around for a long time, and can be said to be the heart of the idea of XUL, and HTML. Except, that in the case of XUL and HTML, they both run in a sandbox type environment ... called a Network Browser.

However originally, in the 80's, a simple Atari ST did present it's "message dialogs" in text. When displaying such a dialog it simply made a call.

form("[3][Some text][OK]")

Which the graphical environment manager took, and turned into a graphical dialog with an OK button, and an ICON #3. Such a dialog can easily be sent across a textual, or serial interface with XML.

<message id="mydialog" type="info" ok="true">Some text</message>

The response message from the dialog can also be returned with a simple message, textually to the sender.

<event type="response" id="mydialog">OK</event>

Which makes it simple for any embedded system, to present it's data graphically, and have it presented orderly on the users desktop. A simple event loop, on the users computer can be used, which does not require enormous resources in graphics, can be used. This will allow a developer to have several computer connected to his desktop, and to interface with multiple computers at any single time.

This is what the project Lose the Desktop is about. It's about having one Desk, where data from several file cabinets can be handled.

An example of the above message can be seen

Project Admins:

• Bjarne Orn Hansen