A few months ago the usual tech news aggregators (HN, Reddit) listed a canvas-like interface that let the user arrange shells on the screen and chain them up like spreadsheet cells. I think it was a research project. Can anyone remember what it was called / link it?

Might be http://userland.org/ ?

Yes that's the one! Thanks!

I missed this one... Very interesting! I like how it mix outputs from several "realms". I also like the way you see the intermediate results of a shell pipe chain. Thanks for sharing!

I absolutely adore Userland although I haven't had the chance to try it yet. It's so immediately understandable to me, maybe because it's sufficiently close to the status quo, although it's also such a real demo and design. It just rings true and you are certain it would work and be useful. I think this is because the creator is making it for their own needs. Compared this to https://www.mercuryos.com/ which I find very difficult to understand with it's avalanche of Concepts and Ideas. It just doesn't feel real. It's the software equivalent of photos a minimalist flat where you can just sit at an empty desk with a coffee and a macbook and a view of the fjords. It's an attractive idea but then you think - where do you keep all your life crap?

@Chris Knott I like both. Userland is a functional prototype, Mercury is a conceptual design. As strategies for exploring new spaces and communicating what was learned, they make different tradeoffs in terms of concreteness, broadness etc. I don't think you can make a fair comparison between the two without acknowldging that fundamental difference.