Doe started dreaming about the tablet because he was dissatisfied with using his MacBook in class to take notes. A multitouch tablet that he could write on and use with his fingers would be much easier, he figured. But the more he thought about it, the harder it seemed. “The main problem is that Multi-Touch can be applied in many different ways,” writes Doe on his blog. He explains:
There are three broad categories for applying Multi-Touch:
* First, Multi-Touch can be added on top of our PCs as they currently exist. This idea is stupid. Multi-Touch becomes practically useless because it’s on top of an interface that is designed for keyboards and mice. It’s nothing more than a novelty here. A cool novelty, but a novelty nonetheless.
* Second, the physical keyboard and mouse can be put aside and their current controls redesign for Multi-Touch. This would be accomplished by recreating things like keyboard shortcuts and “right-click” as Multi-Touch gestures. This is also stupid. Most of these gestures become just as obscure and indirect as the keyboard and mouse. They would be impractical and hard to learn. And, these gestures would not be as good as the actual keyboard and mouse controls they emulate. Right-Click on a Multi-Touch computer is absurd.
* Finally, you can completely abandon everything we know and understand about the PC interface, and start fresh with a new Interface Paradigm and controls focused on Multi-Touch. This is the path to take.
