on 10/25/01 5:17 PM, Joel M. Sciamma at joelsciamma_at_compuserve.com wrote:
> Forget about applications in their existing monolithic forms and move to
> document-centric approaches to solving problems.
> (OpenDoc was going in that direction - another victim of the pressure
> that can be brought to bear by the encumbant developers.)
Let me put this to rest. There is one major problem with the component
concept, and the major hurdle that killed OpenDoc--memory. When you have
within the document, both the data and the concept of the editor, you
quickly run out of memory. Sure, you are fine if you stick to a simple
document, but when you start adding components to a document, it quickly
starts consuming memory, or at least OpenDoc did, and soon you have one
document that is hogging system resources and simple tasks such as scrolling
become a major ordeal. I used Cyberdog, Wav and other products, and this was
what killed it for me. KISS is the word of the day with OpenDoc. It was also
too buggy, and for all the promise, OD never delivered in such a way to
attract either users or programmers. Yes, there was and maybe is a small
core of adherents, but it never could go mainstream. It wasn't killed, it
died a natural death, that it deserved to die. (and I _like_ Open Doc!--was
playing with Wav just this evening, in fact)
> Ditch proprietary file formats which block the free exchange of data - the
> only thing any user of a computer really cares about in the final analysis.
> (The WWW Consortium is doing its best to promote open data standards.)
The problem is that we, as people, like our computers compartmentalized into
proprietary formats. If we didn't, in the end, things would change. I think
that one major problem that exists is the total re-adjustment that people
would have to undergo in their way of thinking. I know that when I try to
describe to people the concept of soups in the Newton, or OpenDoc, I am met
with completely confused faces. People just can't grasp it. In order for it
to succeed, it must simplify this changeover, and work right, right out of
the box. Open Doc didn't and neither did the Newton for too many people.
-- -Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net> <mailto:glasshaus5_at_aol.com> "[The] law established by the Creator, which has existed from the beginning, extends over the whole globe, is everywhere and at all times binding upon mankind. . . . and is paramount to all human control." --Rufus King, signer of the Constitution-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Nov 01 2001 - 10:02:39 EST