Comments on: Does a cross-platform interface make Second Life a second-class application?

By: Kara Harkins

Kara Harkins — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:00:15 +0000

No, it isn't unusual. I am a mentor at Virtual Ability and we get a LOT of people coming through there.

By: Kara Harkins

Kara Harkins — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:00:15 +0000

No, it isn't unusual. I am a mentor at Virtual Ability and we get a LOT of people coming through there.

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:02:50 +0000

Targeting a single platform is certainly a black mark. “Go big or go home” as they say.

By: MetaNews Daily - 15 | SLPN

MetaNews Daily - 15 | SLPN — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:11:05 +0000

[...] Daily Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Todays Topics: Does a cross-platform interface make Second Life a Second Class Application? OpenSim gains compatibility with other viewers If Reuters Left Second Life for Lack of Important [...]

By: radar

radar — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:19:02 +0000

Unfortunately, what most of the opensource projects are doing is instead just targeting windows and pretending OS X and linux don't exist. See realXtend and Bubblecloud.org for two examples of this approach.

I'd far rather have a not-so-hot unified UI that I can run in OS X without ever having to touch windows than something with bells and whistles that I'm forced to either run windows or not use. I think heading in this direction is a bad move for opensource VW platforms.

By: Alberik Rotaru

Alberik Rotaru — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:11:12 +0000

*typing and no, it wasn't deliberate.

By: Alberik Rotaru

Alberik Rotaru — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:09:48 +0000

That's a really interesting idea. I wonder how much of my frustration with SL is a matter of reaching for system functions I'm used to in every other app on my machine. I've got a disability that makes ting without a spell checker a serious challenge and I doubt my situation is unusual.

By: Eristic

Eristic — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:31:04 +0000

Second Life has a unique problem to solve and the answers aren't all in the OS that runs it. It does make a lot of sense to adopt consistent keystrokes and conventions from the supporting OS, since the best interface is always the one the user already knows. However SL is not just another app, SL's main paradigms are from 3D games and not productivity app's and, as we all know, many games come with their own UI you have to learn before playing.

Maybe, the goal should be to create a heuristic UI that is easy to master initially and reveals the inner complexity of SL only as the user demands it. The learning curve of SL starts with basic navigation and movement and ramps up to object creation, scripting, texturing, event management etc etc… So the interface of SL has to initially give easy-to-master access to a virtual world and, when the user is ready, access to the deepest structures that create that world. It's a tall order, not sure anyone's tried this before, and it probably needs it's own set of UI paradigms.

By: Kara Harkins

Kara Harkins — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:57:42 +0000

Yes, just assigning keyboard shortcuts would be too radical. I would drool over a purely-mac third party viewer if it were competitive though.

By: Vint

Vint — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:34:48 +0000

You should definitely check out the results of Dusan Writer's User Interface contest a while back!