Would LCARS just be a Starfleet specific OS?
- Thread starter indolover
- Start date
Home computers in Trek seem to be identical to the ship computers, so I'd say there's at least some commonality. Maybe it's like the same company making different but similar OS's for different situations.
Not an answer to your question, but check out the computer displays aboard this Russian timeship in the UPN-produced series Seven Days:
I remember the original set for Dateline NBC had background displays with LCARS graphics.
I remember the original set for Dateline NBC had background displays with LCARS graphics.
Yeah, I remember seeing that and thinking
Is LCARS an "operating system"? The name makes it sound more like a type of software for efficiently operating the library of the Enterprise.
Canonically, the only indication that something called LCARS even exists is that these letters appear on the lower right corner of displays involved in library searches. They are not to be found on things like weapons control or warp core diagnostics panels, apparently...
Timo Saloniemi
Canonically, the only indication that something called LCARS even exists is that these letters appear on the lower right corner of displays involved in library searches. They are not to be found on things like weapons control or warp core diagnostics panels, apparently...
Timo Saloniemi
Generally, LCARS stands for "Library Computer Access and Retrieval System" and seems to relate to the GUI of the OS rather than the OS itself.
When it comes to interfacing with alien computer systems, I suspect that Starfleet's OS utilises similar algorithms to those used with the Universal Translator, being able to 'reconstruct' the alien programs 'language' by getting it to respond to multiple queries.
Just a thought.
When it comes to interfacing with alien computer systems, I suspect that Starfleet's OS utilises similar algorithms to those used with the Universal Translator, being able to 'reconstruct' the alien programs 'language' by getting it to respond to multiple queries.
Just a thought.
So how else do the crew control the ship's computer's functions?
^^^
Optical data network (ODN)?
Optical data network (ODN)?
It is very likely a skin or a shell. I remember years ago using a shell to replaced explorer.exe. There were many unix-like shell too.
I would guess that in a society that isn't market driven, that LCARS could show up everywhere. More advanced forms would be at starfleet and homes would have the bulkier looking format.
I would guess that in a society that isn't market driven, that LCARS could show up everywhere. More advanced forms would be at starfleet and homes would have the bulkier looking format.
For reference, here's the entry in the 1994 edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, written by TrekBBS member and inventor of LCARS Mike Okuda:
Also, I prefer black backgrounds for computer displays, even for Windows, but it never occurred to me that black backgrounds save electricity until today, when I first heard of Blackle. the version of Google with black background to save electricity on the user's end. So that'S another good thing about LCARS.
And a quick search of my username in Google Images, which someone suggested in a thread in Miscellaneous (the OP found his/her own avatar there!), turned up a picture someone took of a computer using my LCARS system. The computers in my house, except for the model of computer, look like this:
Also, I prefer black backgrounds for computer displays, even for Windows, but it never occurred to me that black backgrounds save electricity until today, when I first heard of Blackle. the version of Google with black background to save electricity on the user's end. So that'S another good thing about LCARS.
And a quick search of my username in Google Images, which someone suggested in a thread in Miscellaneous (the OP found his/her own avatar there!), turned up a picture someone took of a computer using my LCARS system. The computers in my house, except for the model of computer, look like this:
For reference, here's the entry in the 1994 edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia, written by TrekBBS member and inventor of LCARS Mike Okuda:
Also, I prefer black backgrounds for computer displays, even for Windows, but it never occurred to me that black backgrounds save electricity until today, when I first heard of Blackle. the version of Google with black background to save electricity on the user's end. So that'S another good thing about LCARS.
And a quick search of my username in Google Images, which someone suggested in a thread in Miscellaneous (the OP found his/her own avatar there!), turned up a picture someone took of a computer using my LCARS system. The computers in my house, except for the model of computer, look like this:
But black backgrounds do not save power on LCD screens, because the backlight is fully on regardless (unless it has some kind of Dynamic Contrast, but that still depends on the brightest colour it needs to display). Back in the CRT days it saved power though. I can't take black backgrounds. It literally makes my eyes water within a minute.
Not all, but I do have two 1996 Toshiba laptops that act as clocks in Standby mode but also have full LCARS systems on tap. with various programs that I use quite often. The other computers all run Windows. The kernel on the LCARS computers is DOS, which acts as a boot loader in this case, since the LCARS system is a 32-bit DPMI program, like the 32-bit versions of Windows and Linux but with a DOS stub attached that makes DOS see it as a DOS program even though it really isn't.
But having the kernel separate makes installation easy and allows the user to run DOS games, etc. on the same machine.
