phr (12/13/82)
[This is the contents of a newsletter which the Xanadu project has been sending around in the mail. It mainly brings things up to date for people who were at Hypercon 8 in Boston last summer - I've been meaning to write and post something to introduce Xanadu to the netnews community for several months, but this will have to do for now. --Paul] A LETTER FROM XANADU, #1 Ann Arbor, MI December 1982 WELCOME! This is the first in a series of newsletters which XOC, Inc. will publish quarterly. In addition to publicizing the semi-annual Xanadu (tm) Hypercons, we want to keep people interested in the Xanadu (tm) Hypertext System up-to-date on the status of the system and the company. NEW DEVELOPMENTS Many exciting advances have taken place since the August Hypercon 8 in Boston. Most importantly, the company received a new Sun 68000 workstation with an 87 megabyte disk drive in September. XOC received an additional 673 megabyte disk November 19th. These new resources have speeded up implementation considerably. The frontend is starting to understand about different link types. With the Sun workstation's bit map graphics capability, we can now start working out he best way to visually display links. "Three-sets", the part of the system which allows a programmer to include information about a link other than where it connects to, are now implemented. We expect to have "parallel textface", a visual display of versions, working soon. Parallel textface will show a user two versions of a document using a split screen and some visual techniques to indicate where the versions differ. We recently fed a document of .75 megabytes into the system. Linkages within this document and from others have been made and tested; this is demonstrable proof that the Xanadu Hypertext System can handle large databases without degrading response time. Other advances occurred in the business operations. Six months ago, we decided that Xanadu would be divided into two companies. PXI, or Project Xanadu Incorporated, will hold the rights to the Xanadu Hypertext object code. PXI will license a second company, XOC, to lease the code for commercial applications. XOC was incorporated October 14, 1982 and we hope to incorporate PXI shortly. With XOC incorporated, we are actively seeking venture capital and/or a first client. We just finished the XOC business plan and have begun working up sales presentations and demonstrations. Although we are talking to several possible clients, we are still looking forward to our first contract. At this point, we are willing to commit to delivery with a year. XOC just announced a new product in addition to the Xanadu Hypertext System for immediate release. DIRVISH, DIRectory oriented VIsual SHell, is a visual directory for hierarchical file systems such as that possessed by UNIX (tm Bell Laboratories). Ideal for the naive user who tends to get lost in tree structures, DIRVISH uses the cursor to travel around columns of directories and files on the screen so that users can see where they are in relation to the tree. We plan to market DIRVISH through OEM's. HYPERCON 10 The 10th Xanadu Hyueprcon will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 8th and 9th. Hypercon is the semi-annual gathering of the community of people interested in Xanadu, hypertext, and electronic publishing in general. It is our way of keeping the public up-to-date on what we are doing and also brings together a diversity of individuals with a common interest. This Hypercon will (hopefully) include a technical walkthrough of the current Minimalfrontend and a discussion of frontend standards. We are scheduling the walkthrough for the 9th, to be held only if enough interest is expressed. If you play on attending the walkthrough please RSVP by December 31. Also, specify the type of media you want your copy of the current frontend on. A fee will be charged to cover media costs. Further details of place, time, and scheduling are not finalized as of this writing. For more information please call or write. We appreciate RSVP's. Once we know approximately how many people will attend, we are thinking of reserving space for those who are interested Saturday night at our favorite Szechuan restaurant, to be followed by some sort of informal get-together. FOR SALE XOC has been receiving some queries about the Xanadu T-shirts we wore for Hypercon 8 and the "xandles" which Ted Nelson mentioned in his newsletter of May 1982. T-shirts are available for $12 pre-paid from XOC Inc., please specify S, M or L. Ted Nelson is selling "xandles", or user names in the Xanadu Hypertext System, for $100 pre-paid thru BOX 128, Swarthmore PA 19081. Buying now assures you of a unique xandle of your choice. Current proceeds from xandle sales help fund Project Xanadu and the fee will be credited to your account when and if Silverstands open. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Help us answer your questions by telling us what sort of information you want and what your interest in Xanadu is. Address any comments or questions generated by this newsletter to Susan Letwin, Vice President, XOC Inc., POB 7615, Ann Arbor, MI 48107 or phone XOC at (313) 663-3637 [or send electronic mail to allegra!phr and I'll forward it]. We will be happy to hear from you.
charliep (12/16/82)
Can someone explain to me more about what Xanadu is? Thanks...
debray (12/22/82)
The only (serious) refence to "Xanadu" that I can think of is in Sam Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan : "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan..." which makes me think that Xanadu was a mythical kingdom, possibly Oriental. Saumya K. Debray SUNY @ Stony Brook