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From: shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: every icon is an object
Message-ID: <4607@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-May-87 11:27:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.4607
Posted: Thu May 28 11:27:03 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 30-May-87 07:37:11 EDT
References: <8705190042.AA14664@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs)
Organization: PASS Research Group
Lines: 26

In article <3614@osu-eddie.UUCP> bob@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield) writes:
>In article <6787@mimsy.UUCP> steve@mimsy.UUCP (Steve D. Miller) writes:
>	It sounds like they've [Haeberli] re-invented (or borrowed) some ideas
>from the Evans and Sutherland Picture System's environment.  As far
>back as the PS-300 in 1983 or so, this sort of stuff was available,
>and maybe before then or on earlier PSs.
>[...]
>	There was a development environment (PIGS?) that allowed one
>to manipulate pictures of boxes representing functional elements of a
>dataflow circuit. [...]

Probably folks from E&S are more competent to comment on this, but unless
I'm mistaken, you're referring to the "network editor" written by Dave
Schlegel.  I used it a few times;  not too novice-friendly, and was a little
slow, but very sophisticated.  Also necessary, since the "Pascal-like"
language has approximately the feel of assembly language, what with dozens
of little connection numbers that all have to match up!  I don't think the
dataflow language of the PS-300 is sufficiently appreciated by the language
community - I found that programming dataflow seems to need some rather
strange synchronization-type operators of a sort never mentioned in the
literature...  The language is quite powerful - Sandra Loosemore wrote a
flight simulator complete with SLC streets and the Wasatch mountains.
The whole thing runs locally in the PS-300!

							stan shebs
							shebs@cs.utah.edu