TENAGLIA@mis.mcw.edu (Chris Tenaglia - 257-8765) (11/26/90)
Icon seems to be designed around the data stream concept of the unix shell
(character cell) environment. It's not not fast enough with image processing.
I've tried it.
Still, here is some thinking from the keyboard. I won't mention any new
language constructs that may be needed to support it. I'm just going over
the most external look and feel of what an X-Window/Motif Icon
environment might look like ...
Obviously, with a windowing interface the term 'icon' becomes overloaded. To
preserve the 'Icon' language we'd call the pictures objects or pix to keep
the names straight. These objects will have a file name squeezed into them,
and a user editable pictogram to make it more recognizable. Each file type,
should have special distinguishing features to make them instantly
recognizable. icont may be another object to which source and ucode is fed,
and new icode objects generated.
Files : (Source)
These contain icon source code. Clicking on a source object brings
them up in an editor window of choice.
(Ucode)
These contain the intermediate ucode. An IPATH window contains ones
that one may want to link with.
(Icode exec)
Under unix these can be made self-starting. I'm not sure what to do
about other operating systems. This graphical object would have input
and output sockets (stdin & stdout always by default, others declared
in the program). Data files have only a stdin/stdout socket pair,
where icode files can have many sockets. These sockets should have
'gender' and allow one to construct applications much like LEGO
blocks.
(Data files (pipes))
These are data files or other shell filters. The icon environment
would give them each a stdin/stdout socket pair. If the object is
a textual data file, clicking on it should pop it into an editor
window just like source code.
These are just some food for thought. I come from a VAX VMS VT100 style shop
with a few PCs and MACs laying around, so my vision may be clouded by
ignorance.
Chris Tenaglia (System Manager) | Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 W. Watertown Plank Rd. | Milwaukee, WI 53226
(414)257-8765 | tenaglia@mis.mcw.edu, mcwmis!tenaglia