03/15/2023
I apologize for having to write a bit more than I originally planned about Soft Touch Buttons interface, but it is important and has to be done at least once.
If we take a look at modern systems, we're still confined to icons on the screen. The entire logic of any OS is based on icons on the desktop or in folders. Icons, along with menus of varying sizes, tailored to fit our fingers, are what we see on both iOS and Android. It's a vestige that dates back to the 80s. I look at the madness they put in Teslas and even more so, in Dragon ships. I imagine astronauts spinning in three dimentions under heavy gravity overload, as they swipe through submenus, trying to find, and most importantly, hit the "Elon, take the wheel..." from the list, and I realize that all this fun is very-very temporary.
Unfortunately, there are no modern tactile interaction systems to speak of today. We're all mired in menu items. Everything we have is an adaptation of the past, corporate, like dead water. They can't be called beautiful, functional, or even remotely pleasant — they simply do the job as written in the technical specification by the manager in charge of the direction, while another sold us silver gradients as a modern and fancy idea...
The development of Soft Touch Buttons started with a black screen. As I worked on it, I had to think about what user interaction with modern information systems could look like, not just a website or CMS, but any other system requiring user interaction — a CNC machine, a car display, a mobile phone, and an operating system. I tried to completely abstract myself from the concept of folders with icons, the desktop, and file structures. Not the files themselves, but the files as they are usually seen by the user.
The Soft Touch Buttons interface turned out to be entirely unique in terms of experience, utterly unlike anything else, and at the same time, simple to understand and master. The interface was developed for and on touchscreens, without forgetting about augmented reality and, forgive me for being so bold, holograms.
This interface philosophy could easily be applied to Linux and wouldn't be some sad imitation of Windows, which, like World of Warcraft, everyone is trying to replicate but can't quite nail. In our case, it would be something entirely, completely different, long overdue, and significant.
Why am I so sure? Because the CMSXL system runs on Linux. A button is an element that launches a command or a sequence of commands, returning a result. To put it simply.
In CMSXL, inline interface elements are used in the majority of cases, which, of course, doesn't mean it's limited only to them. The interface is designed to fill the entire screen if necessary, using blocks of elements of various sizes and purposes. All blocks can stretch horizontally or vertically, contain additional indication, stitching, activity, etc.
In conclusion, it's worth mentioning that the interface is incredibly lightweight, fast, and smooth. Apart from jQuery, the interface doesn't use any other plugins, and I'm only buddies with jQuery because it's simply shorter. All icons in the interface are vector SVGs, which are stored in the database and can be supplemented, deleted, or replaced in the same way as fonts and base colors.
I'll keep you posted on news and updates. Thank you.
Regarding Linux, I am seriously considering it, but due to limited time resources, I may have to put it off until a later date.
