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Ever had one of those times where you had quickly dismissed a piece of software only to find how essential it was after giving it a try later on? This happen to me roughly last week when I had issues with quick launch icons and desktop shortcuts. I had so many shortcuts that I had to organize icons in folders… and even the folders started to litter the desktop. While the Windows Vista’s start search bar is helpful, it does not allow (with the exception of some hacks) the use of custom commands and doesn’t supply any configuration options for its search index.
I needed a better solution for quick access to directory folders and applications…

I then remembered a program called Launchy that was a more customizable search bar. After I got it setup, I suddenly realized how vastly superior it was to my horde of desktop and quick-launch icons. Ultimately, I ended up switching from Launchy to Executor as it better support for custom commands. These commands can perform what would be several manual steps in just one keyword which is rather handy. Humanize Enso (the desktop grandfather project of Ubiquity) looks to help bring friendlier human language syntax than either both previous applications, but personally I find Executor able to do everything I need it to do.

After playing around with these applications, I remembered that Firefox had a similar plugin called Ubiquity that did something like this except for website related content. Between Ubiquity and Executor, I can execute almost any function of my computer within a few key taps. This means I have really no need for desktop icons or a quick-launch bar which removes a ton of visual clutter while still being efficient at accessing my commonly used applications.

While I think language interfaces are a fantastic way to eliminate clutter and improve efficiency, I don’t think they are a replacement for GUI interfaces as most current implementations have done (like Bash, Ubiquity, Launchy, etc). It would be a neat concept to try to merge the two methodologies into one interface… perhaps starting with a language interface and switching into GUI modes when the user needs finer control for complex input.

It will be really interesting how well into the future projects like Ubiquity and Firefox Awesome Bar are accepted into the general public. My main concern is if beginner to novice computer users are able to unlearn GUI control in exchange with keyboard hot-keys and human language syntax.

Here are two interesting articles on the subject that are worth mentioning:
Why Language Interfaces?
Problems with Language Interfaces?


Author: Jonathan Dunlap
Jonathan is a veteran software architect, author of IsoHill, humanitarian, and has worked with Bigpoint Inc, CrowdStar, ePrize, and Microsoft.
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General Programming