Hypercard: the missing link to the web

[Richard Gaskin]

Colin Holgate wrote:

 > On Jun 1, 2012, at 8:06 PM, Kay C Lan wrote:
 >
 >> >Which then brings me full circle to another thread on this List
 >> about where OS X is headed, and my feeling that '...and a touch
 >> sensitive screen' will be part of the future OS X requirement.
 >
 > I'm less sure about that. Steve Jobs spoke out about how touch
 > screens are not the right way to work with desktop machines...

Steve said a lot of things, and frequently did the opposite.  It's part 
of the secrecy culture, not tipping their hand to the competition and 
all that - here's a brief rundown of some of them, including "no phone" 
and "no tablet":
<http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/18/when-jobs-says-no-we-hear-maybe-heres-why/>

When Apple launched the iPad Steve said, "If you see a stylus they blew 
it", but last month Apple filed a patent application for a stylus:
<http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/24/apple-applies-for-stylus-patent/>

Like TUAW says, "When Steve says 'no', we hear 'maybe'". :)

Tipping their hand is just now how Apple works.


 > ...and I've made enough touch screen kiosk applications to know
 > that it's tiring to work that way.

Indeed it is, but only for long work sessions and only when the monitor 
is oriented vertically.

ATMS and other kiosks have have revolutionized whole industries with 
touch screens, and for the sort of longer-session workflows we use PCs 
for Asus and others make touchscreen monitors that are designed to be 
either vertically oriented or laid down at a 30-degree angle - very much 
like a drafting table.

The drafting table orientation has been optimal for long work sessions 
for centuries, so it seems inevitable that as computer form factors 
continue to diversify we'll see an increasing number of those.

Windows 7 already includes support for touch gestures, as does Ubuntu 
with UTouch, and as you noted Apple is increasingly supporting touch 
gestures on their desktop as well.

The bigger question is precision:  occupying only a single pixel, the 
action point of a mouse makes it significantly more precise than any 
finger can be.  But that's ultimately a software design issue, not an 
inherent flaw in the nature of touch devices as a whole.

We're seeing an increasing variety of productivity software for touch 
devices, and there's no reason to believe these must be limited to 10" 
screens.

Computing devices will get both smaller and larger as form factors 
continue to diversify, with Google goggles leading the way on the small 
end and touch monitors like Asus' leading the way on the large end.

The tablet is not the end of the evolutionary road.  Every form factor 
in current use is best recognized as a transitional technology.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv