eXene

[Vlad Dumitrescu (EAW)]

Hi,

> I am thinking a little more radically in trying to eliminate
> objects, and thus am trying to eliminate applications.  I
> really don't want anything that is statically pre-architected.

This might be another case of "name confusion", but I don't see how one can do without applications. The starting point has to be a need for a certain functionality. Then one has to implement it in some way and when one wants to use it, one has to be able to tell the system "I need the XYZ functionality". The system then has to figure out what it needs to be able to provide that functionality. The place taht holds all the links to relevant code/data/information is just the application (or at least that's how I call it).

> I don't want to reimplement the same UI in a different language, 
> I would rather think about a wholly new approach to UI.

Yes, me too, but since there are no good enough low-level graphics packages implemented for Erlang yet, we have to use what is already here: X, or OpenGL, or something else. 
 
> Why not view the UI as a pool of data that is streamed out?

Very reasonable :-)
 
> As a user I would rather restructure
> my display based on the tasks I need to accomplish, not
> based on the applications that I have installed.  If the computer
> is a general-purpose machine why are the programs not
> general-purpose?

Oh, just wait until DotNet comes!! :-D

regards,
Vlad