A new face of computer interface

Can you ever guess such a program that will be useful for all computer users without any exception? Well, there is one - our operating system. Our computer can’t work without it. But what else? In fact, it is difficult to imagine such program. Some people need text editors, others - games, and somebody needs powerful application for real-time 3D modeling. Is there anything that can unite many people with different needs and habits?
I was very surprised when found such program a few days ago. Its name is rather curious - VistaGlance. What can program with such name do? We can find it from the program’s motto:
”Access files with the power of your mind!” This is rather adventurous statement. However, when you download and try this program, you find out that this is a truth. Maybe a bit poeticized, but truth. Of course, computers can’t read man’s thoughts and won’t be able to do it for a long time. The motto says about a bit different thing.

What?

Hundred times a day you run programs, open files or search for some information in your PC. You loose up to 50% of working and spare time in "folder plays"! What do you do when you want to open a file or run a program you need? In most cases, you walk through numerous folders and subfolders or wander about countless items in Start menu. Do you remember such situations when you have even forgotten what you need while searching for the necessary file in the thorny tree of your file system? This is a bad side of Explorer. Explorer can solve only one problem: it helps you to examine the contents of some folder you do not know about. But users rarely need this. Almost each time we open Explorer, or Start menu, or some Norton commander-like program we want to open some document or run some program we know about. We know its name, or its category, or some part of the name... Well, how often do you run programs which names you do not even know?
Explorer - is a big illusion indeed. We spend our time seeking for files that we already imagine, perceive, remember, know... Why should we tell computer a such illusory thing like "file path"? With VistaGlance you will not "play with folders" anymore. You will do what you want and get what you want as soon as you think about it. It is simply a new kind of interface, more powerful, easier and faster than all you have seen before...

How?

Suppose you want to open some document. Of course, you know its name or some part of name, or something about its category or keywords. You simply type this little piece of information (often this is not more than several letters - and it takes less than a second to enter it) you know about this file or program into a small field in your taskbar, or in Explorer toolbar, or in Floating Bar and press Enter. May be you do not even guess where this file could be. It is up to computer to figure it out. Less than in a second you get exactly the very thing you need. Maybe there are thousands of files with similar names but you always see exactly what you need. It sounds like a science fiction. However, this is reality. The name of this reality is VistaGlance.
Do you still want to spend up to 30 percent of working hours on tiresome browsing for the necessary files and programs? When you try VistaGlance, you will see that there are more pleasant ways to spend this time rather than to play with folders.

Why?

It is so natural to access files and programs by their names and don’t ever think about their placement. Present-day operating systems make people ask “Where?” rather than “What?” when we want to open or run something. However, file system or Start menu is not like your street or native town - there are much less reference points. One folder is very similar to other folders; one submenu is like many other submenus. There are no differing details that human’s eye can catch and memory can keep. It is not surprising that even people who have been working with computer for many years can’t remember, where they placed the file they’ve just downloaded or where they saved a very important document yesterday or where some program is situated. Standard search techniques can do nothing with it. They are annoyingly slow and just perform a silly search while we need a clever tool to instantly access files we need. VistaGlance is the kind of tool we need.

When?

The idea of the program like VistaGlance born in February, 2005. I just read a wonderful book "The Humane Interface" by Jef Raskin which striked my imagination. I suppose it just changed my way of thinking in the area of computer-human interfaces. A few days later I stumbled across "The Anti-Mac Interface" by Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen. It is not a book but a rather small article but it contains a lot of fresh and nonstandard thoughts about the modern computer human-oriented interfaces. Like many people who came into computer world not directly from Windows but from DOS and command prompt, I understood that command line is the one of the fasted kinds of interface. All these icons, windows, shortcuts and other flashy stuff can't give user such speed of work. However, I also realized that command-line interfaces are hard to learn, difficult to understand and simply unattractive for novice users.
The idea of combining best sides of command-line and graphical interfaces soar hovered somewhere in the air. Both "The Humane Interface" and "The Anti-Mac Interface" gave me a lot of ideas of how it could be done. Several months of coding passed and I released SunGlance - a powerful index-based searching utility. I tried to tell people that this is not only a search utility like Windows Search but a completely new way of accessing and manipulating files. My friends understood me. The least World - no. So I sat down and start thinking of what was wrong with this concept. In October, 2005 I grabbed all improvement ideas and started working. In February, 2006, in a year after SunGlance firstly came to the World, I released VistaGlance - my second attempt to give people a new power of human-oriented command line. Well, I haven't implemented all my of ideas yet. This is still a handy file searching tool and not the command line as it should be. But I add new features daily and one day you'll see VistaGlance becoming the most powerful and easy to use computer interface you ever met. The final step is an independent OS that implements Raskin's, and Nielsen's, and my own ideas on computer-human interaction. But this will be in future, maybe not as near as I'd like to.

About the Author:
http://www.VistaGlance.com The author of VistaGlance is Konstantin Artemev, a Russian programmer. He is also the leader of QwertyStudios. Founded in 2002, QwertyStudios mainly concentrates on developing new methods of computer human interaction and conducts researches in this area. Our ultimate mission is to turn computer into powerful and smart tool. Let’s disprove a saying that computer can solve only problems that hadn’t existed before its invention together!