Recreating the Canon Cat document interface
a day ago
- #User Interface Design
- #Canon Cat
- #Productivity Tools
- The Canon Cat featured a unique user environment with one long text stream, no mouse, no WIMP elements (windows, icons, menus, pointer), no file hierarchy, and no automatic timestamps.
- Navigation was done using leap keys (rose-colored keys below the spacebar) to 'teleport' to text patterns, with left for backward and right for forward leaps.
- Users developed personal conventions like special characters, tags, and @keywords to navigate and organize within the text stream.
- The system encouraged personal software design, where user conventions evolved over time to tailor the environment to individual needs.
- Jasper is a web app implementation of the Canon Cat interface, allowing users to experience and live within this unique system.
- Leap functionality in Jasper mirrors the Canon Cat's, including case sensitivity options, circular search, and cursor rebound for unmatched patterns.
- The article discusses the challenges of adapting the Canon Cat's hardware-specific features (like leap keys) to modern keyboards.
- The Canon Cat's WYSIWYG interface and fixed-width text layout are preserved in Jasper to maintain consistency in text positioning.
- User observations highlight the system's appeal in its simplicity, personalization, and the sense of ownership over one's digital environment.
- The article explores potential extensions to the system, such as autocomplete, Markdown support, LLM integration, and multi-device syncing.
- The Canon Cat's philosophy emphasizes immediacy and focus, akin to a typewriter, free from the distractions of modern computing conventions.