Norman K. Meyrowitz

Intermedia: the concept and the construction of a seamless information environment

A description is given of Intermedia, a tool designed to support both teaching and research in a university environment. This multiapplication hypermedia system provides linking capabilities integrated into a desktop user environment. Hypermedia is simply an extension of hypertext that incorporates other media in addition to text. To promote consistency, the applications were built with an object-oriented framework. A sample Intermedia session is presented.<<ETX>>

Intermedia: The architecture and construction of an object-oriented hypemedia system and applications framework

This article presents a case study of the development of the Intermedia system, a large, object-oriented hypermedia system and associated applications development framework providing sophisticated document linkages. First it presents the educational and technological objectives underlying the project. Subsequent sections capture the process of developing the Intermedia product and detail its architecture and construction, concentrating on the areas in which object-oriented technology has had a significant role. Finally, the successes and failures of the development approach are examined, and several areas of standardization and research that would enhance the process are proposed.

Interactive Editing Systems: Part II

Many daily tasks, whether done with conventional tools or with computers, can be wowed as editing tasks: tasks in which the state of some target entity is changed by the user. This article, Par t I of a two-part series, examines computer-based interactwe editing systems, which allow users to change the state of targets such as manuscripts and programs. This paper is a tutorial tha t defines terms and introduces issues for the novice, and provides a reference for the more knowledgeable reader The aun is to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of the features of typical systems, highlighting substantive similarities and differences. User and system views of the editing process are provided, a historical perspective is presented, and the functional capabilities of editors are discussed, with emphasis on user-level rather than implementation-level considerations.

BRUWIN: An adaptable design strategy for window manager/virtual terminal systems

With only one process viewable and operational at any moment, the standard terminal forces the user to continually switch between contexts. Yet this is unnatural and counter-intuitive to the normal working environment of a desk where the worker is able to view and base subsequent actions on multiple pieces of information. The window manager is an emerging computing paradigm which allows the user to create multiple terminals on the same viewing surface and to display and act upon these simultaneous processes without loss of context. Though several research efforts in the past decade have introduced window managers, they have been based on the design or major overhaul of a language or operating system; the window manager becomes a focus of—rather than a tool of—the system. While many of the existing implementations provide wide functionality, most implementations and their associated designs are not readily available for common use; extensibility is minimal. This paper describes the design and implementation of BRUWIN, the BRown University WINdow manager, stressing how such a design can be adapted to a variety of computer systems and output devices, ranging from alphanumeric terminals to high-resolution raster graphics displays. The paper first gives a brief overview of the general window manager paradigm and existing examples. Next we present an explanation of the user-level functions we have chosen to include in our general design. We then describe the structure and design of a window manager, outlining the five important parts in detail. Finally, we describe our current implementation and provide a sample session to highlight important features.

Personal computer networks and graphical animation: Rationale and practice for education

This paper examines how progress in computer hardware and software may be applied to solve several serious problems in teaching computer science courses. It is concerned primarily with two such problems: 1) the lack of immediate reinforcement of computing concepts because of long delays between learning and practice, and 2) the difficulty instructors have motivating and explaining complex topics with currently available instruction tools and techniques. The paper first reviews the involvement of educational institutions in the evolution of computing. It then briefly surveys recent experiments in powerful personal computing. It describes an experiment in the application of new personal computer technology at Brown University which addresses the two educational problems noted above. It then outlines in detail the initial courseware for the environment. Finally, it discusses what changes in pedagogy will be needed to make such technology usable on a wide-scale.