ref: 4c293a633d125d1d03e81adde9831cb65bf28eeb
parent: f15863ad860b6efd4dafb0999f9aceb4666dd90f
author: sirjofri <sirjofri@sirjofri.de>
date: Sat Jan 13 10:23:07 EST 2024
adds factotum text
--- a/touchuichal.txt
+++ b/touchuichal.txt
@@ -225,12 +225,69 @@
### Namespaces
-- How to visualize and manage namespaces on Plan 9, using touch UI.
-- Dynamic, per-process namespaces are an integral part of Plan 9.
+For many people, namespaces in Plan 9 are the reason to use Plan 9 instead of other systems.
+While it is an original Plan 9 feature, Linux nowadays has a way to at least build a dynamic namespace, however, this is still far away from namespaces in Plan 9.
+Although namespaces are a very important feature of Plan 9, a few users pointed out that it's mostly useful on a server.
+This detail is important to know, because most touch screen devices are also end user devices, not servers.
+
+However, namespaces are one of the core features of Plan 9, and it's very important to think about them.
+On touch screen devices, developers will have to decide how to integrate them.
+Most of the time, namespaces are set up before starting an application.
+This means that a touch user interface needs to provide a way to adjust namespaces in a shell² before starting the application.
+
+[[[ms
+.FS
+² ``Shell'' in this context does not necessarily refer to text based shells.
+.FE
+]]]
+
+In the survey, namespaces scored more than 4.1 points out of 5.
+
+[[[ms
+.\" - How to visualize and manage namespaces on Plan 9, using touch UI.
+.\" - Dynamic, per-process namespaces are an integral part of Plan 9.
+]]]
+
+## Other features worth mentioning
+
+During the survey, users added a few other important features that should be mentioned in the context of this paper.
+This also means that they are not covered by the survey.
+
+Note that the users mentioned even more aspects, but those were not related to user interface aspects, so they're not covered in this paper.
+Please refer to [Meyer] to learn more about them.
+
+### Filesystems
+
+Plan 9 has a concept of resource abstraction using filesystems.
+Those filesystems can be an abstraction of basically anything, it's not restricted to files on a disk; and all interaction with files in those filesystems happens using the same protocol without any restrictions.
+Unlike other systems, there's no concept of ``virtual'' files.
+
+This is also an invitation to developers to provide interfaces to their software using filesystems.
+On Plan 9, this is done with many applications and system components.
+From low-level system features and drivers (e. g. /dev) to high-level components (e. g. webfs) and applications (e. g. acme), the general feature allows for much flexibility and simple access to how the software works.
+
+Everything else about this features is already handled in the section about namespaces.
+
### Factotum
+While most filesystems are used by other applications, there's one big exception.
+Factotum is the authentication manager of Plan 9.
+Most modern operating systems have password managers, Plan 9's factotum goes beyond that by providing way more security features than just a plain password store.
+However, going into more details is not needed, there are papers already, as well as the man pages [Security].
+
+Many applications in Plan 9 use factotum, and it make sense to continue using it on devices with touch screens also.
+However, this means that some things must change.
+
+Most importantly, users need a way to manage their keys.
+For adding keys there is a graphical way already: Fgui.
+However, deletion and editing is not easily possible using end user tools, besides using the text-based shell and an editor.
+
+It is also important to rethink the source of the keys.
+Secstore is simple enough to be used, however managing the keys is somewhat different on touch devices.
+Using an editor is simple enough, but also not very convenient on a smaller touch device such as a smartphone.
+
# References
[[[ms
@@ -238,6 +295,8 @@
[Meyer] J. Meyer, ``Survey: Plan 9 and Touch User Interfaces'', 2023.
.br
[AndroidIntents] Android Developers, ``Intents and intent filters'', https://developer.android.com/guide/components/intent-filters, 2024.
+.br
+[Security] R. Cox, E. Grosse, R. Pike, D. Presotto, S. Quinlan, ``Security in Plan 9'', 2002.
.br
]]]