Very cool UI for a desktop
bumptop.com
bumptop.com
Besides "feeling compulsively clean", The only reason why we sort or organize anything is so that we can find it later. I think this has better potential if a search box was tacked on to it. That way, if you search for something, all the relevant documents rank themselves in front of you.
I can't imagine using something like this to organize code. But animating compilation there would be a neat visual (and waste CPU cycles)
However, if it's coupled with augmented reality, it would probably make an interesting way to browse.
The problem is that in real world things get messy. That is why we started using computers to begin with! :-)
Now, I only have a dozen years of experience with operating systems, programming languages, etc. I'm quite a technical user; I think I fit the definition of a computer geek, or power user. I have a talent to debug very nasty bugs in embedded, real-time software written in (unintentionally) obfuscated C. I can install and use OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc. I can write small Scheme programs. And still, I feel Im trapped in a jungle I cant escape when Im using Mac OS X or Windows for everyday tasks. Our computing world is a live nightmare. Its a terrible, ugly mess. There really is a huge impedance mismatch between our brains and our computers.
Technology is designed (mostly) by people who think they live in a perfect, mathematically pure world. I cant really blame them; because by "them" I mean "us". But the real world is not binary; its fuzzy. As you said, it's messy. Its imperfect. It changes as our mood changes. Computers should reflect this. They dont.
I think that user interfaces that tried to mimic the real world failed because the people behind them still kept thinking as computer scientists, university professors or ubergeeks (they were lying to themselves). Some user interfaces were designed to treat the user like a five-year-old kid (hello Microsoft Clippy). Others were replicating real-world stuff that was badly designed in the first place (VCR control panels are a good example). And most of them focus on being cool demos with great eye candy (look at where desktop environments are heading; who fucking cares about translucent stuff, rotozooming windows animations, 3D?) Hollywood film-makers should take the blame here :)
At first, when I saw this project, I thought: "yet another boring, eye-candy environment with cool tricks but no real innovation." But I should try it; maybe the user experience really is improved. Its worth trying.
[Sorry about the whole rant tone of this post; itÂs not really a reply to your post either; consider it a draft of a work-in-progress essay Ill try to complete and improve over time.]