Software Visualization and IBM Jazz
The Lighthouse project is doing some really nice work displaying software development processes across multiple monitors. They’re using Google maps, 3D and other location oriented approaches to create new kinds of developer tools. Now they’re integrating these tools with IBM Jazz. Sweet.
I’ve long viewed screen real estate as a huge constraint to be worked around. The tasks and ideas in my mind just don’t fit on a single screen. It’s rare for me to use just a single screen or even a single computer unless it’s my laptop outside of my office. Most of the time I’m using 2-3 machines and lately more and more that ratchets up to 4-5. Typically one of the machines has a dual display so at any given time I have 3-6 screens visible.
The volume of information flowing through IBM Jazz or any development environment doesn’t fit on a single screen so it’s a huge productivity drain to constantly search for, then minimize and maximize windows. Virtual desktops help, but then windows are out of sight.
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October 29th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
[…] on topics I’ve mentioned previously in Software Visualization and IBM Jazz and Location oriented software development, CNN reports that In its research, the University of […]
December 24th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I’d seen a tool called Synergy way back and but always was skeptical it would really work as advertised and didn’t want to fool with installing more stuff on my already overtaxed LAN. Well, yesterday a lot of reasons, I decided to bite the bullet and am happy to say that the product is perhaps a bit better than advertised! So far it has been rock solid with a mix of operating systems. Synergy configuration is very flexible. With my main machines(the ones whose keyboards and mice were reasonably accessible) I can cycle between screens by mousing to the left border and I also have ctrl keys set up for direct jumps to these and other machines. You can do all kind of mouse transitions - above/below screen etc., but I didn’t like having to deal with overshoots going for menus, the dock or the scroll bar of a maximized window. This feels like a HUGE productivity gain because I can now jump to another machine start typing(pasting url’s takes this way beyond tabbed browsing) or open/use an app. Before switching machines was more expensive and without cut and paste not that advantageous but now I’m in heaven with Tank - the true hero of the matrix
January 31st, 2008 at 8:57 am
[…] models of what the software is attempting to simulate are very useful. For example, some people are using Google maps and 3D in the context of IBM’s collaborative development environment Jazz. More screen real estate helps visualization too. So with relatively inexpensive flat screens […]