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From: ralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st,comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Better Windows?
Message-ID: <1166@ius2.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 14-May-87 17:07:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: ius2.1166
Posted: Thu May 14 17:07:11 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 16-May-87 11:16:08 EDT
References: <8705130929.AA17766@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
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Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:4813 comp.sys.mac:3149 comp.sys.atari.st:3452 comp.windows.x:742

>In article <> pete@gpu.utcs.totonto.edu writes
...
>> Now if someone could come up with a graphic rendition of Pipes and
>> I/O routing, we'd be laughing...
Something like the following model (which I first heard described by Steve 
Berlin at MIT as a user interface proposal for an information system) might
be handy for 'visual pipe fitting':

Visual shell ("Plumber's Finder") model:

====== Pipes
o-, -o I/O connectors  

          /\                      /\               
o stdin  /  \ stdout o===o stdin /  \ stdout o======[ /dev/null (Garbage can?)]
o fd 4   \  / stderr o=+ o fd 4  \  / stderr o=o-in1[Pipe  ]        ____      
          \/           |          \/       +=o=o-in2[Fitter]out-o=o/ log|
     Application       |      Application  |                       |file|
         Icon          |         Icon      |                       +----+
                       +===================+

After the pipelines are built you invoke a 'DOIT' operation which invokes the
appropriate commands.  (In the above example we're only interested in logging
the error output of each program) You could add a gimick where the pipes
themselves provide the ability for 'spying' on the data coming through them.
You could also reduce the need for 'pipe fitters' (like tee) by making it 
possible to build pipes with multiple connections on them. 

File objects (IBM card icon by default) would have 'append' and 'overwrite'
input connectors, which correspond the csh '>>' and '>' operations. 
(appending is probably a reasonable default, so it shold be the most prominent
connector.)

I'm not convinced that forcing Unix semantics on a graphical model will get
you as many customers as would rewriting the applications, but I could be
wrong.  There's still the problem of passing command line arguments and
such, so you will need to change the application anyway. 
-- 
					- Ralph W. Hyre, Jr.

(c) Copyright 1987 by Ralph W. Hyre, Jr.  You may redistribute only if
                                          your recipients can.
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