Ever watch a bartender ring up a complex order? That's a domain where touch exceeds keyboard / mouse hands down. Digital art, such as drawing (or even just whiteboarding an idea).

There is no one universally great input method.

> Ever watch a bartender ring up a complex order?

Too many times to count and I'd disagree it's better than a keyboard equivalent. It's easier for new/casual staff and can be easier for visual people but it's awful compared to someone with a bit of training for complex things. They seem to fail at making the complex things achievable for the less trained as well IME.

Plastering drink logos on big buttons is easy for some, but for non-visual people and those not familiar with the products it's harder/slower than an alphabetical list or typing the first 2 characters. Want to put something on my account? Good luck with the touch keyboard.

Compare those modern touch screen apps to something like a TUI that used to run in the local video shop 30 years ago and there is no comparison in speed and efficiency.

I like TUIs because their limits have made their creators strive for extremely efficient UX.

Or a sufficiently complex establishment with a sufficiently trained bartender could do better with keyboard macros. Sure it may be rare but the point is touch interfaces have a complexity limit whereas keyboards and grammars don't.

How can a touch interface have a complexity limit that a keyboard doesn't? You can literally emulate a regular keyboard on a touch screen.

The answer is agility of thought and execution, and that if you emulate a keyboard on a touch interface as its main interaction paradigm it's to all effects a keyboard, but with less tactile feedback thus harder to get agile with.

Hard to imagine a more confined problem domain.

Ever watch anyone using a FreeDOS based POS system?

Honestly, when I first heard about the Hololense project, I just wanted to be able to code in the ceiling while relaxing.

You should check out Virtual Desktop with the Oculus Go. It’s astonishing.

The Go’s screen is appreciably better than the Rift’s, and the network streaming utility that brings your Windows computer’s screen into the Go is excellent.

One thing that was interesting was the zen of using it instead of a monitor - it’s just you and your screen. Nothing else in visible space. With a pair of noise cancelling headphones, I’m convinced that this is the first glimmer of productivity in the commercial space for VR that has wide appeal.

I tried it for a fair amount of time and I’m convinced that when the Oculus Quest comes out, I’ll use that instead of a monitor for some of my work.

I was gifted an Oculus Go for Christmas and typically use it to play games and watch VR YouTube, etc. I've always thought it would be cool to do some of my programming work in a VR space. Just picked up this app to try it out after your review and it does seem pretty neat. What "environment" do you prefer to work in?

Do you feel side effects from over-stimulus of the brain? From my experience with VR, it seems like an hour is about all I can handle before my eyes start hurting. Whereas with AR/MR, I feel like the lack of visual input is better for nausea and strain.

Elevr did some research on VR/AR interaction design, and this is the office they came up with: http://elevr.com/the-office-of-the-future/

That looks incredibly dystopian.

More than just the goggles?

Avatars in VR meetings that match your RW posture

Perhaps this could work for some, but for front line workers (the target of Hololens) it absolutely would not. The entire current mission of Hololens is to empower front line workers that currently have access to no computers at all, people that work with their hands and can't have a smart phone, keyboard, monitor, etc right in front of them.

I see frontline workers use those thing every time I interact with them, far more efficiently than anything real demonstrated in a Hololense video so far. If you're working with your hands, it's very likely you can't afford to have you FOV obstructed by much. For example, I'd freak out if I saw a surgeon wearing one. I'd much rather they be looking at a magnified view, fed to a high-speed 2D display than a laggy 3D approximation of reality.

If your idea is inherently visual or spatial, a keyboard is terrible and a mouse is clumsy. Try signing your name with a mouse. Try doing any of this with a keyboard: http://elevr.com/experimental-still-lifes-and-landscape-inte...

Try coding by voice.

It might not be as bad as you think:

https://www.i-programmer.info/news/99-professional/6263-code...

Programming languages of today are built for text. I will not be surprised if a PL is designed for voice. It can be done

Alexa, create a module for search with O(n log(n)). :)

Sounds like an XKCD joke, but something like pip install search-something will probably be trivial and common.

What's the point if you have a screen in front of you? Why wouldn't you just update the monitor?

There's definitely room for laggy, non-interactive 3D views in just about everything. Pick anywhere is space to display a clock/calendar you can glance at. Draw with the mouse and keyboard but see it rendered on your desk. Overlay keyboard shortcuts for the new program your learning on your real keyboard. Show a battery level overlay on the cell phone on your desk. Overlay the title of the song currently coming out of the speakers you're looking at. Overlay the estimated calories of the meal you're eating. Animate the solution to the puzzle sitting on the floor.