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I sort of agree, but I think that user interfaces need an underlying conceptual model that is familiar to users separately from the actual UI. Otherwise any pur
by fauigerzigerk 7y ago
I sort of agree, but I think that user interfaces need an underlying conceptual model that is familiar to users separately from the actual UI. Otherwise any purely presentational change implies arbitrary new rules that no one can remember.
One conceptual model that has worked to some degree on mobile platforms is the idea that programs not users have permissions.
But mobile platforms are overdoing it in a way that makes data centric work impractical.
I'm not quite sure how to overcome these issues, but I feel that making the distinction between permissions assigned to users vs permissions assigned to programs more explicit and more visible could take us a step further.
- zeta0134 7y agoI think this is the most sensible approach, but I'm not aware of any desktop operating systems trying it. It seems like you'd need permissions for the user to access their own files, the program to access its own files, and then a set of combinatory permissions: Sally has given Foo permission to access Bar.txt, for example. Standard unix permissions could technically do this by creating a bunch of ghost accounts pairing the two, but it gets messy fast. Something closer to access lists makes more sense? I dunno. This is a curious problem, and my ideas are half-baked. Is there any activity in this space outside of mobile?