3D

[andrewducker]

I've just watched a video of Sun's 3D desktop (Project Looking Glass), and I _still_ can't see the point of a 3D desktop. Largely when I'm working I want a single app, maximised. Sometimes I want a couple of apps so I can retype something from one window to another, or read documentation while working, but I don't think I've ever needed something in 3D - largely because my screen isn't 3D, so trying to put 3D things on it just means you're overlaying the things I'm actually trying to look at.

Has anyone got a suggestion for how a 3D desktop might be useful?

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if it laid out all 2D pop-up and pop-under windows with one edge towards you so you never see them.

[avatar.livejournal.com]

I think you have to look at like this.

Imagine that you have only ever seen things in 2D, and suddenly discovered there's a third dimension. Why would you ever bother looking at things that way? You've only ever seen things in 2D's, and that's been fine.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Different kinds of interfaces (and tools) would arise. For database/object diagrams, just for example, 3D would be incredibly useful.

You sound a bit like an old text interface dude wondering what the hell use this new fangled GUI stuff is! (and for some tasks, this is a legitimate point of view).

You know that often you need to have the technology there and not necessarily immediately apparently useful before the real 'killer app' emerges. e.g. I don't have broadband because I can't see a use for it for me, but I'm sure if I had it, I'd start doing things (and maybe different things) in all sorts of different ways.

The 'net itself was around for AGES before it got the web (the new interface) and then its use exploded from a few academics and geeks (i.e. me and thee) to encompass just about everyone.

Often, you just don't know what you can do with something until you (and many others) have it and play around with it.

[damienw]

K3,3 and K5 don't admit planar embeddings: being able to manipulate graphs that contain these as subgraphs in a nicer way than chasing or doing rotations would be good. Um.