Quote Originally Posted by bigtomrodney
I'd agree that currently it is a waste of resources, <snip> but I'm glad to see someone pushing the boundaries a bit.
I teach this sort of stuff to juniors and seniors at UNH and the thing i push these days is the amount of technological change that occurs during the building of a software project. If we don't start playing (in a serious sense, EG the Looking Glass project) with 3d windowing tech. now, when the tools (not just horse power, but all of the display and input technology) are there, we won't be ready for them. This is a constant race between hw/software and it is getting tougher and tougher to keep up on the software end.

We have designed products in my classroom,that were looking glass like but with currently unavailable hw tech such as miniature 3D projectors being built into miniscule PCs. This is *not* far off. A big project like a windowing system from scratch, if started now, could just about be finished by the time the hw is ready!

In conclusion to this long winded lecture, let me say that he who designs software for the current state of hw will lose in the market place of the future.