Welcome to the LCARS Interface!
About LCARS: LCARS at Wikipedia
About our LCARS style apps:
Our LCARS style applications are designed to let you perform some of your every day tasks (and a little fun added in) from an interface inspired by the LCARS computers that were first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ever since the show came out, people have been trying to make computers that look and act like the ones on the Enterprise-D. There have been a number of projects over the years that accomplish this with some degree of success. Until recently, they never quite gave the real experience due to the cost and often poor quality of touchscreens that were available. Now, a LCARS styled application which puts controls on a screen behind glass gives the same look and feel as the stage prop computers that were used in the shows 20 years ago. Instantaneously by adding one of these screens to your computer will greatly enhance your LCARS experience. This page will more address questions about the applications themselves.
Why Windows 8 and Windows Phone?
From the many platforms available, Windows 8 and Windows Phone provide the ease of distribution both initially and for updates that is found on mobile devices, while Windows 8 also has the largest potential user base out of any platform. Many of the other LCARS projects out there offer more potential in terms of functionality like replacing the Windows shell entirely, but many people don't want the hassle of trying to deal with that on a day to day basis due to them lacking many things that they need and sometimes being unstable. LCARS Interface, while being restricted somewhat by Windows Store (and more recently Windows Phone Store!) application reduced functionality and system access, offers an in-between option. The application will evolve to serve many casual everyday computer needs, while also being able to be turned off easily when you need to do something else. The strength is in the idea that this is not a collection of many individual apps, but one package that does many things without having to leave the application.
Being professional software developers by day, we learn a lot of new software design processes and use professional grade tools that let us bring a lot to the table in terms of building applications in C, C++, Java, and C#. LCARS Interface is designed on the backend like a commercial grade application, and as such will not be a low quality piece of software and is easily built upon due to proper design.
Having a full LCARS shell on your computer offers the benefit of many different LCARS based apps being used together, but these individual apps are often not designed by the same person/people and can offer an inconsistent experience. Our LCARS apps will offer a unified experience across all of the modules that they include (as well as between our different LCARS applications), which will give the feeling of it being a real operating system, even if it does have to work within the Windows Store app bounds. Why then, not make the app for the Windows desktop instead and offer increased functionality? At least with the Windows Store, updates are pushed to you and you don't have to keep checking a website to see if there is an update. You also aren't dealing with experimental software. If you want a shell replacement, there are options for that, and we don't see a need to start a new project from scratch to try and do what many have been working on for years now.
Will you help me develop my own LCARS app for the Windows Store/Windows Phone Store?
The short answer is YES. We want to see more LCARS apps in the Windows Stores. We are not worried about "competition", as we strongly believe in using our skills to move the LCARS community forward as a whole. Aside from the cost of buying this app in the store, since it costs us money to put it there, we are not interested in getting compensated for any assistance we give you, so please ask!
