gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (12/10/88)
There's some more on the Browser issue in the mid-December MicroTimes,
page 132.
I haven't seen anything but pictures of the NeXT browser, but it seems
to be a straightforward implementation of Mark Miller's column design,
which I think was done in about 1982 while he was at Xanadu. They
tried to market it in a program called "dirvish" (directory visual
shell). It ran on the naked Sun-1 screen in text mode (except for a
few vectors drawn with Tek 4014 graphics escapes -- there was no window
system for Suns yet), but visual shells reminded Unix users too much of
horrible straightjacket menu packages back then, and it never caught on.
At any rate, Steve Jobs certainly doesn't own the idea of three-column
displays that display three levels of directory hierarchy. If Apple's
scummy fook'in-leel suit sets any precedents, he may be able to
copyright some of the bits around the edges of the columns, but the
main idea precedes NeXT by a long shot.
There's another good quote on that page, too:
"There can be no doubt that just as HyperCard is for the Macintosh,
Application Builder will be a great source of bad programs for the
NeXT computer." -- David Morganstern
--
John Gilmore {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com
"The network *is* the confuser."pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) (12/10/88)
In the referenced message, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) wrote: > "There can be no doubt that just as HyperCard is for the Macintosh, > Application Builder will be a great source of bad programs for the > NeXT computer." -- David Morganstern Yes, that's just a result of Flon's Law (see .signature). And while we're pointing out things that NeXT copied from, has anyone else noted the similarity of Application Builder to Paul Haeberli's "data-flow programming environment"? See the 1986 Summer Usenix proceedings, page 419. --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@rtsg.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey Flon's Law: There is not now, and never will be, a language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad programs.
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (12/13/88)
In article <7884@well.UUCP> Jef Poskanzer <jef@rtsg.ee.lbl.gov> writes: >And while we're pointing out things that NeXT copied from, has anyone else >noted the similarity of Application Builder to Paul Haeberli's "data-flow >programming environment"? See the 1986 Summer Usenix proceedings, page 419. A reference on Interface Builder itself is "SOS Interface, Un generateur d'Interfaces Homme-Machine" by J.M. Huillot from Bigre + Globule No 48, January 1986. (ISSN 0221-5225). The article is in French. Sorry for leaving out the appropriate accent marks.) This contains the Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Object-Oriented Languages. -- Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B Cupertino, CA 95014 AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr