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Metaphor isn't necessarily vague. You can have extended metaphors, which can have surprising and informing depth. It can even be an isomorphism. e.g. the deskt
by hyperpallium 9y ago
Metaphor isn't necessarily vague. You can have extended metaphors, which can have surprising and informing depth. It can even be an isomorphism.
e.g. the desktop metaphor
- fallous 9y agoThe "desktop metaphor" is a conceit, in the literary sense, that provides a general structure to a presentation but it isn't truly useful as a means of conveying the logic or expectations of a system in the way that an analogy provides.
- hyperpallium 9y agoAn aspect that does is the position of a mouse on a desktop with the position of a cursor on the screen.
- fallous 9y agoExcept that the "desktop metaphor" stops being a "desktop" with the introduction of a cursor and mouse. Actual desktops are manipulated directly by users... and desktops don't allow you to move your hand all the way to the right and magically move to a new clean desk (in the case of virtual windows). There's nothing about a desktop that infers the behaviors described which is why it's crappy for conveying the actual behaviors of current UI... hence the limited nature of metaphor.
- justinjlynn 9y agoGiven an appropriate physical implementation of a desk, more aspects the desktop metaphor could certainly be implemented. Typically metaphors allude to the platonic ideal of something and not any one concrete instance of a given subject.
- fallous 9y agoI'm not sure that metaphors allude to Platonic ideals but rather (to stick with Plato) are closer to the shadows on the cave wall.