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by paleogizmo 1748 days ago
It’s also probably worth mentioning that the iPhone borrowed some UI conventions from Palm OS. I recall correctly, not only did Palm OS not expose files to the user, but it lacked a file system entirely. Instead it had a database associated with each application to store user data. As the linked article pointed out, this worked very well for the use case of taking quick notes or checking a grocery list but quickly becomes limiting for workflows with multiple programs.
1 comments
zepto 1748 days ago
> the iPhone borrowed some UI conventions from Palm OS

This isn’t the case. iOS is closer to “At ease”, which pre-dated palm os by a decade.

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AshamedCaptain 1748 days ago
You are joking, right? http://toastytech.com/guis/atease.html
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zepto 1748 days ago
Why would you think I was joking. At ease was a simplified interface from the regular finder. It’s primary change was to flatten the file hierarchy into a limited set of panels. It pre-dated both palm os and iOS, and informed the design of both of them.
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AshamedCaptain 1748 days ago
Because there are files, folders, windows, and the entire suite. This resembles MS Bob (as the linked webpage says) more than it does resemble PalmOS / iOS.

Initial versions of PalmOS / iOS had no files whatsoever, at least visible to the user. If you had say a document editing app on iOS/PalmOS, and you uninstall it, your documents are absolutely gone from the device unless you backed them up somewhere else. The app "owns" the documents. On iOS, this is because apps can only access their private storage space with a few exceptions; on PalmOS this is because there is no filesystem whatsoever so all your apps can do is store stuff on your application's private database, also with a few exceptions (e.g., PalmDOC standard for ebooks). There are no folders, just "categories" or tags at most, there's no way to "browse files" because there aren't, just "apps" and a app launcher which you reach through a home button, and there's no way to share information between apps except through the clipboard.

This "at ease" is clearly showing a shared filesystem where apps can load/save random documents to, and in fact it even shows you can create folders and subfolders... http://toastytech.com/guis/ateasesubfolder.png

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