Product Code Database
Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development.
The term was popularised in the UK in the 1970s by architects David Rock and John Townsend. In 1972, Rock Townsend opened Workspace, developing the idea of multidisciplinary working by providing office space for small design businesses; a former Sanderson wallpaper factory in Chiswick, west London was converted into the Barley Mow Centre, providing workspaces for craftspeople, designers and architects.
In configuration management, "workspace" takes on a different but related meaning; it is a part of the file system where the files of interest (for a given task like debugging, development, etc.) are located. It stores the user's view of the files stored in the configuration management's repository.
In either case, workspace acts as an environment where a programmer can work, isolated from the outside world, for the task duration.
Multiple workspaces are prevalent on Unix-like and certain operating system shells. Mac OS X 10.5 and later macOS releases include an equivalent feature called "Spaces". Windows 10 now offers a similar feature called 'Task View'. Windows XP PowerToy is available to bring this functionality to Windows XP.
Most systems with support for workspaces provide keyboard shortcuts to switch between them. Many also include some form of workspace switcher to change between them and sometimes to move windows between them as well.
Workspaces are visualized in different ways. For example, on Linux computers using Compiz or Beryl with the Cube and Rotate Cube plugins enabled, each workspace is rendered as a face of an on-screen cube, and switching between workspaces is visualized by zooming out from the current face, rotating the cube to the new face, and zooming back in. On macOS, the old set of windows slides off the screen and the new set slides on. Window managers without "eye candy" often simply remove the old windows and display the new ones without any sort of intermediate effect.
Such applications have several advantages over traditional FTP clients or virtual folder offerings, including:
Beyond organizing and sharing files, these applications can often also be used as a business communication tool for assigning tasks, scheduling meetings, and maintaining contact information.
Ever since the iPad was released by Apple in 2009, bring your own device (BYOD) has become an increasingly more important problem for IT. Until now, IT has purchased, provisioned, and managed all enterprise desktops which run the Microsoft Windows software. There are nearly 500 million enterprise desktops in the world. However, with the introduction of smartphones and tablets, there are far more devices that are owned by the end-user - 750 million PCs and Macs, 1.5 billion smartphones, and 500 million tablets. These also run different operating systems, like iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. How does deliver business applications and data to end-users on these heterogeneous operating systems and form factors?
Federica Troni and Mark Margevicius introduced the concept of Workspace Aggregator to solve the problem of BYOD. According to Gartner, a workspace aggregator unifies five capabilities: (1) Application Delivery: The ability to orchestrate provisioning and de-provisioning of mobile, PC and Web applications (2) Data: The secure delivery of corporate data (3) Management: Management of application life cycle, metering, and monitoring features (4) Security: Provision of context-aware security (5) User Experience: A superior user experience through the delivery of a unified workspace
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