[Fwd: [emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop] Emacspeak WebSpace --- Interaction-Fre...]
Hans Zoebelein <[email protected]> Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:23:43 +0100
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --===============1832305574== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------040203060500010409090605" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------040203060500010409090605 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop] Emacspeak WebSpace --- Interaction-Fre... Resent-Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:26:00 -0500 (EST) Resent-From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:25:58 -0800 (PST) From: T. V. Raman <[email protected]> To: [email protected] A few months ago, I started an Emacspeak module called |emacspeak-webspace| that is now ready for wider use. The goal of this module is to unobtrusively fetch useful information from the Web and communicate it at those times that one is context-switching among tasks. I gave a talk on user interaction at the last Hackers Conference <http://www.think.org> in November; in the same session, there was another talk whose gist was a plea for /less/ human-computer interaction --- motivation: User Interfaces are nice, but wouldn't it be nice if one didn't have to /explicitly/ interact with the machine to get information? The speaker coined the term /Zen interfaces/ in that context, something that stuck in memory long after the talk. I built that thought into module |emacspeak-webspace|. Conceptually, it consists of /smart fetchers/ that fetch information asynchronously from the Web, and /smart displayers/ that communicate this information at /appropriate/ times. These are detailed below. Fetchers There are two fetchers at present: Weather Fetches current weather conditions for your location. News Fetches headlines from a customizable collection of ATOM and RSS feeds. Note that this module is not intended to be an RSS or ATOM feed-reader; for that, use module |greader| --- an API-based Google Reader client that is bundled with Emacspeak. Communicating Useful Information Usefully With the information in hand, the next question is how does one communicate this information /usefully/, and what does /at the appropriate time/ mean? Things to avoid: Interaction-Free Do not require explicit user action to hear the information. Avoid Chatter Avoid creating an auditory user interface that chatters at the user all the time. These are conflicting constraints. Notice that in a visual interface, one can meet the /interaction-free/ requirement by displaying the information in a toolbar or sidebar and allow the user to ignore or absorb the information at will. Emacspeak uses Emacs' /header-line/ to display the continuously updating information. This meets the /interaction-free/ requirement. The header line updates every time Emacs updates its display, and automatically speaking it would produce too much feedback. But Emacspeak doesn't automatically speak the header-line; it only speaks it when there is a /context-switch/. How To Use Here is how I am using |emacspeak-webspace| at present: Weather Activate weather display in the |calendar| and |scratch| buffers. News Activate feed headlines in selected |shell| buffers. You hear the updated information when switching to buffers where the webspace display is active. Activating WebSpace Displays Webspace displays are activated via the following commands; all Webspace displays will be placed by default on prefix key |hyper-space| * |emacspeak-webspace-headlines|: |hyper-space h| * |emacspeak-webspace-weather| |hyper-space w| Share And Enjoy, And May The Source Be With You! -- Posted By T. V. Raman to emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop <http://emacspeak.blogspot.com/2008/03/emacspeak-webspace-interaction-free.html> at 3/06/2008 07:25:00 AM --------------040203060500010409090605 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <br> <br> -------- Original Message -------- <table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Subject: </th> <td>[emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop] Emacspeak WebSpace --- Interaction-Fre...</td> </tr> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Resent-Date: </th> <td>Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:26:00 -0500 (EST)</td> </tr> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Resent-From: </th> <td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></td> </tr> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">Date: </th> <td>Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:25:58 -0800 (PST)</td> </tr> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th> <td>T. V. Raman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:[email protected]"><[email protected]></a></td> </tr> <tr> <th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">To: </th> <td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <br> <br> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p>A few months ago, I started an Emacspeak module called <code>emacspeak-webspace</code> that is now ready for wider use. The goal of this module is to unobtrusively fetch useful information from the Web and communicate it at those times that one is context-switching among tasks. I gave a talk on user interaction at the last <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.think.org">Hackers Conference</a> in November; in the same session, there was another talk whose gist was a plea for <em>less</em> human-computer interaction --- motivation: User Interfaces are nice, but wouldn't it be nice if one didn't have to <em>explicitly</em> interact with the machine to get information? The speaker coined the term <em>Zen interfaces</em> in that context, something that stuck in memory long after the talk. </p> <p>I built that thought into module <code>emacspeak-webspace</code>. Conceptually, it consists of <em>smart fetchers</em> that fetch information asynchronously from the Web, and <em>smart displayers</em> that communicate this information at <em>appropriate</em> times. These are detailed below. </p> <h3>Fetchers</h3> <p>There are two fetchers at present:</p> <dl> <dt>Weather</dt> <dd>Fetches current weather conditions for your location.</dd> <dt>News</dt> <dd>Fetches headlines from a customizable collection of ATOM and RSS feeds.</dd> </dl> <p>Note that this module is not intended to be an RSS or ATOM feed-reader; for that, use module <code>greader</code> --- an API-based Google Reader client that is bundled with Emacspeak.</p> <h3>Communicating Useful Information Usefully</h3> <p>With the information in hand, the next question is how does one communicate this information <em>usefully</em>, and what does <em>at the appropriate time</em> mean? Things to avoid: </p> <dl> <dt>Interaction-Free</dt> <dd>Do not require explicit user action to hear the information.</dd> <dt>Avoid Chatter</dt> <dd>Avoid creating an auditory user interface that chatters at the user all the time.</dd> </dl> <p>These are conflicting constraints. Notice that in a visual interface, one can meet the <em>interaction-free</em> requirement by displaying the information in a toolbar or sidebar and allow the user to ignore or absorb the information at will.</p> <p>Emacspeak uses Emacs' <em>header-line</em> to display the continuously updating information. This meets the <em>interaction-free</em> requirement. The header line updates every time Emacs updates its display, and automatically speaking it would produce too much feedback. But Emacspeak doesn't automatically speak the header-line; it only speaks it when there is a <em>context-switch</em>.</p> <h3>How To Use</h3> <p>Here is how I am using <code>emacspeak-webspace</code> at present:</p> <dl> <dt>Weather</dt> <dd>Activate weather display in the <code>calendar</code> and <code>scratch</code> buffers.</dd> <dt>News</dt> <dd>Activate feed headlines in selected <code>shell</code> buffers.</dd> </dl> <p>You hear the updated information when switching to buffers where the webspace display is active. </p> <h3>Activating WebSpace Displays</h3> <p>Webspace displays are activated via the following commands; all Webspace displays will be placed by default on prefix key <code>hyper-space</code></p> <ul> <li><code>emacspeak-webspace-headlines</code>: <code>hyper-space h</code></li> <li><code>emacspeak-webspace-weather</code> <code>hyper-space w</code></li> </ul> <p>Share And Enjoy, And May The Source Be With You!</p> </div> <br> <br> --<br> Posted By T. V. Raman to <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://emacspeak.blogspot.com/2008/03/emacspeak-webspace-interaction-free.html">emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop</a> at 3/06/2008 07:25:00 AM </body> </html> --------------040203060500010409090605-- --===============1832305574== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline _______________________________________________ Blinux-announce mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-announce --===============1832305574==--