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PureOS is convergent

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Re: PureOS is convergent

#51

Post by Tohquai7 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

IDEs and productivity tools often approximate a tile-based window managers where you can collapse all but the central tile (or conversely, put the central one in fullscreen) if you want the maximal real estate for the content instead of the auxiliary bars and then slide them in for a moment when you need them.

This mode seems suited for mobile UIs, so that flexibility should get them pretty close to being convergent. There probably still need to be some adjustments to make it really usable on mobile, but a lot of the work has already been done.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#52

Post by derefr »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

How about, instead of creating applications that are on all levels a compromise between the two, just create applications that work hard to decouple their UIs (view/presentation layer) from their business logic; and then, for each application, write a small touch UI, a large touch UI, and a desktop UI, as separate view layers, all living together in a monorepo.

Or, in other words, do what any third-party app developer who ships apps for iOS+macOS from a single XCode project source does—but build your whole OS like that.

As well, ideally, the view layer would be modular enough that it could be unloaded and reloaded at runtime, such that you'd be able to dock your phone to an external display and have all your running applications switch to their desktop UI view-layers without losing state.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#53

Post by zelos »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

Vim is on iOS, at least ;-) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vim/id492668168?mt=8

Re: PureOS is convergent

#54

Post by Insanity »

mdgrech23 wrote: post #2

I've got to switch to your laptop and your phone to get the benefit of being in sync? No thanks. Not worth it to me.

How is this different from buying into the 'apple ecosystem'? It's just a different ecosystem.

Not saying that you agree with doing so for apple, but other people clearly do so there might be a market for it.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#56

Post by jancsika »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

> Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just seems silly, and I fear that in the name of making "everything work everywhere", we're going to compromise a bunch of apps that worked beautifully on one platform in favor of making them work adequately on several platforms.

Which are the Linux GUIs that currently "work beautifully" on the desktop?

> I mean, if someone said, "I've successfully ported Vim to Android!", my first thought would be, "Why in god's name would I want to run vim on my phone?"

You couldn't just hook up a usb keyboard to the Purism phone?

Re: PureOS is convergent

#57

Post by effinjdent »

fwip wrote: post #33
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

>"Why in god's name would I want to run vim on my phone?" To be fair, I've used vim on my phone over SSH and it was actually a pretty good experience. Editing is a bit more deliberate of an affair than with a hardware keyboard, but still easier than trying to visually select text on the touchscreen, and no complex chorded keybindings to try to enter.

Your phone has an escape key? Or did you rebind it?

Re: PureOS is convergent

#58

Post by sdedovic »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #20

My primary concern with this is that different applications are inherently optimized for the platform on which they were originally designed. There are some applications that have a very dense UI because there's simply alot of functionality that the program handles (think of a video editor, an IDE, etc). Trying to slim down those applications to make them reactive so that they will scale onto a phone or tablet just s…

This reminds me of a part of the Akka documentation about distributing your application across multiple machines:

> The key for enabling this is to go from remote to local by way of optimization instead of trying to go from local to remote by way of generalization. [1]

I think its analogous to this mobile/desktop "purist" OS. Specialize, don't generalize.

[1] - https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/current/general/remoting.html#...

Re: PureOS is convergent

#59

Post by rossdavidh »

This reminds me of the idea of "wouldn't it be great if we could use the same programming language for frontend, backend, and database queries". Well, maybe, but in practice not really. They are doing different kinds of things, you will have to use them differently, it doesn't really help all that much to have the same language. It SOUNDS like this would be really helpful, until you get it, and then discover that it doesn't really help all that much, because what matters most is not the language syntax, but the problem space.

Laptops and smartphones are made for doing different kinds of things. The real-estate requirements are different, as are the typical use cases, and even in the case where you solve them both with, for example, dynamic web pages, you still end up coding for both use cases separately, you just now have it all stuffed into the same codebase, which is harder in many cases instead of easier.

I believe Microsoft has been trying to make all OS usecases the same for decades. I believe they have not succeeded, not because Microsoft is deficient somehow, but rather because it's not, fundamentally, a good idea.

Re: PureOS is convergent

#60

Post by tombert »

aliswe wrote: post #43
tombert wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the GPD Win that I bought a couple years ago, which is more or a less a Nintendo-DS-Sized computer running "real" Windows, and I love it. I can do programming on the train, even while standing up, as well as use all the tooling that I like, including Vim actually. The only limitation for me has honestly been Windows, since I'm more of a Unixey guy. Something that has always bothered me is that smartphones are…

That is an amazing device, thanks for sharing!

I think they released a new one with Linux pre-installed. I might look into that if I can sell my current one.
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