thinman@netcom.COM (Lance Norskog) (04/24/91)
I'm designing a window system that handles real-time 3D, sound, and network interaction. It's called 5D, for 3D visuals plus time plus other sensory interaction. It's something like NeWS or Display Postscript but with a dataflow language described with a static Smalltalk-ish object-oriented classification system. To get a hint of what 5D is about, read the article on Xerox Parc's Information Visualizer window system in the February 1991 Byte Magazine. 5D would be an excellent base for writing InfoVis. 5D, or something like it, should be the basis for desktop windowing in the 90's. I've posted it on sci.virtual-worlds, since it is of immediate interest there and also because sci.v-w is archived. I have nroff'd copies on-line here and can mail them out. Four pieces total 80K of ascii in 50+ pages. Included: ranting and raving, a language spec, notes on an implementation, notes on a completely visual programming editor, specifications for the primitive (built-in) classes, and some sample programs. Lance Norskog thinman@netcom.com