

Archy - GuiA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy

======
aidos
For anyone who hasn't read it, Jef Raskin's _The Humane Interface_ is a great
book. Makes you really stop and think about how we interact with objects
around us - physical and virtual.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Humane-Interface-Directions-
Intera...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Humane-Interface-Directions-
Interactive/dp/0201379376)

~~~
specialist
I still find a lot of inspiration from the earlier UI books (ideas), before
everything settled down. Lots of crazy, awesome ideas. Now it's just how to
books.

I've been anticipating the ZUI for ages. eg It's the correct answer for a
window manager. It's the only way to maintain continuity, preventing users
getting "hyperlost", kinda like what breadcrumbs try to accomplish.

Did you see the new flashy zooming Calendar transitions in the WWDC Mavericks
demo? It appears to have the right balance between zooming and level of detail
(LOD). Me want!

FWIW, I did _not_ anticipate the dynamic 2.5D in the forthcoming iOS 7. That's
gonna be huge.

------
Uchikoma
I've clicked because I tought it was Archie

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_search_engine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_search_engine)

for which I have fond memories.

~~~
rwmj
Fond memories? Archie was truly horrible.

~~~
sdfjkl
Archie was no doubt truly horrible compared to every search engine that came
after it. However it was at it's time a god-send, as previously there was
simply no way to find anything you weren't directly linked to.

~~~
Uchikoma
Exactly.

------
ripperdoc
Nice, especially the zoom-approach, have anyone seen this being implemented?
However, I disagree with the whole idea of typing commands. For power users
that's great, but for casual users, it's nearly impossible to know which
commands exist, what they are called or what they will do. The menu based
interface has the great advantage that it categorizes commands and allows the
user to see what can be done, and use deduction to pick the right command.
There should be no need to remember any command names or key combinations for
light users.

~~~
TuringTest
Menu and typing commands are not either-or exclusive; you can have both. In a
system like Archy there can be menus stored as plain text - given that it's
trivial to select text and invoke it as a command. It's just that menus don't
require a separate subsystem or component, they're stored in the homogeneous
system's data representation (and they can be user-editable, which modern GUIs
don't allow - yet).

I've known of Archy and The Humane Interface for about ten years, and it's
funny how more and more interfaces are converging towards the interaction
style defined by it (with some tweaks because of backwards compatibility and-
or because some of the ideas in the book have been tested and improved since
then).

------
lloeki
Interesting how OSX strives to achieve similar points, although not coming
from a "from scratch" experience.

\- persistence + universal undo: Versions and Time Machine

\- leaping: missing (although OSX strives to support both fn/alt/cmd+stuff and
a reduced set of emacs keybindings, it's a far cry from doing it anywhere)

\- commands: services. Also, the 'bundle' architecture, of which applications
are a specific instance of aims to make self contained components that add
features to the system.

\- zoomworld: Exposé/Mission Control/App Exposé (with open/minimized/MRU).
Also, Finder inline previews, then QuickShow and finally the document opened
in the corresponding app.

Again all of this is in a reduced form, and applied to a pre-existing WIMP
environment. None of those features existed on OSX 10.0, and it gradually
evolved to have them.

------
perlgeek
Has anybody used this, and can comment on how well the "type while holding the
Alt (or capslock) key" works? I imagine it's a bit hard to type with both
hands while holding down a key.

~~~
mvaliente2001
I used it. It was a very interesting experience, but a little hard to get used
to. The position of alt is not comfortable for the quasi-mode required. CAPS
is more accessible, but then you can't use your pinkie. Raskin's idea was to
use a special keyboard with two spacial keys, LEAP FORWARD and LEAP BACK near
SPACE.

It's so sad that the project died. The interface was very promising and I long
for that keyboard I never used.

~~~
TuringTest
Even though the project died, the ideas in it have spread. It's a funny
exercise for a trained eye to look for ideas originating in The Humane
Interface throughout all kind of modern interfaces.

That book has been much more influential than it may seem - all the good
interface designers seem to know it or at least follow its principles.

------
mntmn
The hardware keys were actually implemented, in the Canon Cat project:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat)

------
arocks
Looks like a lot of good ideas have been taken from Emacs and applied to the
windowing system; which btw is a great idea. Hope it is as scriptable and
extensible as well.

~~~
muxxa
A big difference between Emacs and Raskins' design is the concept of
modelessness. If you've ever typed META+X in emacs in anticipation of typing a
command, and then switched windows or got distracted or clicked the mouse,
emacs is left in the 'command mode' and will misinterpret your next input.

Raskin coined the term 'pseudo-mode'. The difference between a pseudo-mode and
a mode is the difference between the SHIFT key and the CAPS-LOCK key (for
entering uppercase letters). The latter frustrates while the former goes
unnoticed because it works so well.

If you are in any way involved with usability, read The Humane Interface:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface)

~~~
TheZenPsycho
actually he coined to term "Quasi-mode"

------
brini
I like that he named Archy after Don Marquis' Archy and Mehitabel, the
cockroach and alley cat duo. Archy the cockroach would spend hours throwing
his body against the keys of a manual typewriter to convey his poetry about
his muse Mehitabel, who in turn would throw herself repeatedly against the
harsh world of alley-cat living with irrepressible gaiety. Two paragons of the
struggle with interfaces!

------
eitland
No comment on the license yet?

I might be dumb but if somebody don't sell commercial licenses why would they
restrict the usefulness by adding restrictions on commercial usage?

Edit: style. And a possible reason - maybe they have used a non-free library
with a non-commercial only clause?

------
phryk
Don't take this the wrong way but for an interface expert Raskin doesn't seem
to give much consideration to typography. While it might be innovative, I
couldn't use that interface simply because of the bad readability…

~~~
sdfjkl
Those are details that can be refined later. The overarching concept is great.

~~~
hrkristian
I see what you did there.

~~~
throwit1979
Is this reddit?

------
gohrt
Interesting. The modern smartphone OS is almost exactly like Archy. Perhaps
related to the common Raskin@Apple lineage of Archy and the iPhone.

