Welcome to the SharpE White Paper Experiment. This is a companion to the SharpE Case Study Project.

What is this exactly?
It's the see-through effort of our team to compose a well-written, thoughtful, and informative white paper about our project. A white paper is a proposed solution to a problem. Good white papers begin by asking "What is this problem?" and then "How can it be resolved?" and finally "Why should you use our solution?"

This page is a spot for brainstorming and exposing the innards of the white paper before we put it all together and wrap it in pretty outards. You are welcome to post anything you think may be of use. Now, we begin with our problem.

What problem are we addressing? This is what Billi came up with in IRC:

BilliBerserker: so the first question is "what's the problem we are providing a solution for." the problem is that windows doesn't provide enough functionality to customize the desktop without downloading many differrent third party applications from the internet. the build in functioanlity how you can customize the windows desktop is limited to bloated graphical gimmicks which aren't of any use to anyone who wants to work with the computer. the tools you can download from the internet are not provided by a central place, they are all splattered across the net. So much time of searching and trying different tools which don't work together at all is involved. the solution is SharpE as we provide a complete shell which can be customized in an easy way

From this I have isolated a couple of individual problems. First Windows, standing alone, does not provide enough customization options under its own power. Doubtless this does not hold true for all users, but certainly for a fair number of them. Second, many customization options for Windows are separate. One can have a multiplicity of utilities designed to tweak Windows in various ways, none of them coded by the same developers or able to work together.
Other issues will likely crop up at this early stage. Certainly SharpE does good things for Windows users aside from a unified and eminently customizable desktop. As much as there currently is to the shell, there is a great amount more that can be done to it. Another potential solution we offer is a platform to create the potential for the desktop to be expanded in countless ways, and still within a unified framework. Windows itself needs many many outside programs to do this, and a new one is needed each time a new function is desired.
Perhaps a starting point is Form and Function of Windows, henceforth to be referred to as "F&F". SharpE not only changes the Form of Windows, aka how Windows appears, it increases its Function, aka how much can be done with it. A key component of this is customizability. Each user will have his own wants and needs to maximize "flow" and increase productivity. The important point here, I think, is comfort.

The idea of comfort in a desktop environment is not really considered by people in the world of Windows. Linux is seen as much more customizable, if confusing. MacOS is seen as very comfortable, and is beloved by many, if not all, of its users. Comfort can come in many shapes:

• A color scheme that is easy on the eyes. Great if you stare at the screen a lot.
• Monitors for CPU and memory usage, which are an advantage when you need to use big programs.
• The option to have no icons, if you wish, or no taskbars. Just the possibility to minimize what you see on your screen... Keeps it uncluttered.

So a potential topic statement is that SharpE makes for a comfortable and user-directed desktop environment by putting the Form and Function of Windows in the hands of that user.
With our topic statement in mind, what does SharpE do that makes the desktop a more pleasant place?