From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 11:14:56 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: visual programming
Message-ID: <199608081912.MAA29522@netcom14.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



"cpunks write code". the whole concept of writing code may 
fundamentally shift in the future to something that is far more
visually oriented. I tend to think so and think that this idea
will be particularly fruitfully explored relative to virtual 
reality. I believe that in the future, code will be written
neither with "code" nor with "writing", so to speak.

this is a blurb out of Xeroc Parc, the same organization that
brought you the revolutionary wysiwyg GUI, the mouse, the file/folder 
analogy, etc.

imagine that as a programmer, you could see an animated presentation
of your code operation at all times. it would be an incredible
development and debugging tool. it is quite a few years away, but
I think it is inevitable.

what is interesting is that visual programming is not necessarily
a replacement for computer languages. it could be seen as just
another layer of abstraction on top of source code, i.e. a means
of generating source code, which could be in any language du-jour
such as Java. in fact I think this is the way visual languages
will first make their way into commercial environments-- by meshing
with all the existing language baggage.


------- Forwarded Message

Newsgroups: ba.seminars,comp.human-factors,comp.cog-eng,comp.groupware
Subject: BayCHI (Aug 13) - Programming as a Video Game, plus Exploring the World of a Product
Date: 6 Aug 1996 01:23:33 GMT
Organization: Usability Adventures

                                  BayCHI,
                   the San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
          (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction),
                        announces its August meeting:

                          Tuesday, August 13, 1996
                               7:30 - 9:30 pm


                         Programming as a Video Game
                                    or
               ToonTalk -- A Video Game for Creating Programs

                         Ken Kahn, Animated Programs

                                     +

   Exploring the World of a Product: the Light Switch Exploration Project
                     Sam Hecht, IDEO Product Development



                           Xerox PARC Auditorium
                           3333 Coyote Hill Road
                           Palo Alto, CA 94304

 
         <BayCHI meeting attendance is free & open to the public.>

                   <BayCHI programs are not videotaped,
                 and taping by attendees is not permitted.>


Abstract of "Programming as a Video Game or ToonTalk -- A Video Game for 
Creating Programs":

Seymour Papert once described the design of the Logo programming language
as
taking the best ideas in computer science about programming language
design
and "child engineering" them.  Twenty-five years after Logo's birth,
there has
been tremendous progress in programming language research and in
computer-human interfaces.  Programming languages exist now that are very
expressive and mathematically very elegant and yet are difficult to learn
and
master.  We believe the time is now ripe to attempt to repeat the success
of
the designers of Logo by child engineering one of these modern languages.

When Logo was first built, a critical aspect was taking the computational
constructs of the Lisp programming language and designing a child friendly
syntax for them.  Lisp's "CAR" was replaced by "FIRST", "DEFUN" by "TO",
parentheses were eliminated, and so on.  Today there are totally visual
languages in which programs exist as pictures and not as text.  We believe
this is a step in the right direction, but even better than visual
programs
are animated programs.  Animation is much better suited for dealing with
the
dynamics of computer programs than static icons or diagrams.  While there
has
been substantial progress in graphical user interfaces in the last
twenty-five
years, we chose to look not primarily at the desktop metaphor for ideas
but
instead at video games.  Video games are typically more direct, more
concrete,
and easier to learn than other software.  And more fun too.
 
We have constructed a general-purpose concurrent programming system,
ToonTalk
(TM), in which the source code is animated and the programming
environment is
a video game.  Every abstract computational aspect is mapped into a
concrete
metaphor.  For example, a computation is a city, an active object or
agent is
a house, birds carry messages between houses, a method or clause is a
robot
trained by the user and so on.  The programmer controls a "programmer
persona"
in this video world to construct, run, debug and modify programs.  We
believe
that ToonTalk is especially well suited for giving children the
opportunity to
build real programs in a manner that is easy to learn and fun to do.

A live demo of ToonTalk will be given.  (See http://www.toontalk.com.)

                                 ----- o -----

Abstract of "Exploring the World of a Product: the Light Switch
Exploration 
Project":

Initiated by IDEO industrial designers in San Francisco, the Light Switch 
exploration is the first in a series of projects which explore the world
of 
a product.  The benefits, other than those which are delivered within
each 
design, is to expand each designer's mind, but formulated within a group.
 
The group deliberately chose the humblest of product interfaces for 
exploration, asking that the test was in the using.  It was felt strongly 
that this type of project would be able to indirectly inspire some of the 
more complex products that IDEO usually works with, and which the layman 
eventually has to operate.  The approach taken was rooted heavily in both
a 
large vocabulary of materials and the appraisal of a light switch within
its 
environment.

The group started the project by examining the history and context of a
light 
switch and discovered that it was praticularly easy to move away from 
preconceptions which seem to have plagued many earlier attempts by
designers. 
This was further achieved by the group developing contextual platforms
for 
particular scenarios based on the relationships between object and light; 
control and light; the manipulation of light; and the interaction with a 
switch.  The root in material also inspired totally new ways of both 
manufacturing and operating a light switch.  It would be wrong to suggest
that 
these designs are anything more than concepts, but because they were
created 
within an environment that is populated by Human Factors, Engineering,
and 
Interaction Design, they hold many of the concerns which are evoked by
these 
professions.

The group extended the concept of "using" by creating working prototypes.
These were exhibited as part of the "Mutant Materials in Design"
exhibition 
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  Here, the public were able to 
interact with each switch in its proper context; that being to turn a
light 
bulb on and off.  New surprises were observed - such as people stroking a 
switch that only required the slightest of contact.  What was happening,
of 
course, was that relationships were being created between object and user.

The exploration was awarded the 1995 annual design award for concepts and
the 
CHI'96 video award for design, and was part of the International Design 
Yearbook for 1996.


Biographies:

ToonTalk was designed and built by KEN KAHN <kahn@csli.stanford.edu> who, 
after earning a doctorate in computer science from MIT, spent more than
15 
years as a researcher in programming languages, computer animation, and 
programming systems for children.  He has been a faculty member at MIT, 
University of Stockholm, and Uppsala University.  For over eight years he 
was a researcher at Xerox PARC.  During the 1970s he made several
animated 
films which were shown in film festivals, theaters, and cable TV.  In
1992, 
Ken founded Animated Programs whose mission is to make computer
programming 
child's play.  His patent application covering the underlying technology
of 
ToonTalk has recently been approved by the US Patent Office.  David,
Ken's 
11 year-old son, will be running the demos during the talk.

                                 ----- o -----

SAM HECHT joined IDEO in 1994 after working in the areas of interior
design, 
architecture, industrial design, and graphic design.  He has worked in
the 
studios of David Chipperfield in London, Studia design group in Tel-Aviv, 
IDEO product development in San Francisco, and now currently as a senior 
industrial designer at IDEO in Tokyo.  In San Francisco, he created
designs 
for large corporations in the fields of furniture for Steelcase America, 
computer monitors for NEC Japan, and recently telephones for AT&T of
America.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, he started to 
investigate the border between object and environment, which he exercised
in 
a number of interiors.  This interest was furthered with the designs of
the 
offices of IDEO in both San Francisco and Tokyo, which challenge our
thinking 
of the office environment - layered with the philosophy of
multi-disciplinary 
team working that IDEO employs.  He is also responsible for curating the
IDEO 
design explorations that occur each year.

In Tokyo, he is currently focusing on the design of objects of a smaller 
scale.  His work has won several awards; has been exhibited in Europe, 
America, and Asia; and has been published in leading journals throughout
the 
world.

************************************************************************
************************************************************************

                        NOTES OF SPONSORSHIP & THANKS

BayCHI thanks Jock MacKinlay and Stu Card of Xerox PARC for sponsoring
our use of the Xerox PARC auditorium for BayCHI monthly meetings.

************************************************************************

                  BayCHI's September meeting: September 10

                 location: Xerox PARC Auditorium, Palo Alto

************************************************************************

About BayCHI

BayCHI, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of ACM's Special Interest
Group on Computer-Human Interaction, brings together systems designers,
human factors engineers, computer scientists, psychologists, social
scientists, users, software engineers, product managers, ... from
throughout the Bay Area to hear and to exchange ideas about
computer-human interaction and about the design and evaluation of user
interfaces.

To join BayCHI, which will get you added to the mailing list for the
newsletter, enable your access to the jobbank, enable your listing in
the consultants directory, get you a copy of the directory of BayCHI
members, ..., send a note to cstreeter.chi@xerox.com or to BayCHI,
PO Box 25, Menlo Park, CA 94026, and we will send you a printed
membership form.  Membership forms are also available at the BayCHI
meetings; plus, a membership form is appended to this announcement.

Additional information about BayCHI is available at BayCHI's evolving
World Wide Web site: http://www.baychi.org/.

For program updates and to leave messages, call 408-235-9244.

************************************************************************

                         BayCHI Steering Committee

The BayCHI steering committee meetings are open to anyone who is
interested in attending.  The meetings are generally held the first
Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m.  Please contact any member of the
committee for directions to the meeting.

Chair                  Bob Weissman        weissman.chi@xerox.com
Vice Chair             Clark Streeter      cstreeter.chi@xerox.com
Treasurer              Fred Jacobson       jacobson.chi@xerox.com

Program Chair          Richard Anderson    rianderson.chi@xerox.com
Membership Chair       Don Patterson       patterson.chi@xerox.com
Newsletter Editor      Fred Jacobson       jacobson.chi@xerox.com

Dinner Coordinator     Diane Cerra         dcerra@mkp.com
Webmistress            Christina Gibbs     cgibbs.chi@xerox.com
Job Bank               Mark Fernandes      mark_fernandes.chi@xerox.com

Publicity Chair        Christina Gibbs     cgibbs.chi@xerox.com
Tutorial Chair         David Rowley        rowley.chi@xerox.com
CHI Calendar           Megan Eskey         eskey.chi@xerox.com

Consultants Directory  Dave Salvator       salvator.chi@xerox.com
Strng Comm Mtg Host    Ulrike Creach       creach.chi@xerox.com
Newsletter Distr.      Joseph Jarosz       jarosz.chi@xerox.com

Volunteer Coordinator  Clark Streeter      cstreeter.chi@xerox.com
Elections Chair                  (open position)
SIGCHI Liaison         Don Patterson       patterson.chi@xerox.com

International Liaison  Susan Wolfe         wolfe.chi@xerox.com
BAHFES Liaison         Robert Kaplan       kaplan.chi@xerox.com
Xerox PARC host        Jock Mackinlay      mackinlay.chi@xerox.com
 
Past Chair ('95-'96)   David Rowley        rowley.chi@xerox.com
Past Chair ('93-'95)   Ellen Francik       francik.chi@xerox.com
Past Chair ('92-'93)   Richard Anderson    rianderson.chi@xerox.com

At-large               Allison Hansen      ahansen.chi@xerox.com
At-large               Howard Tamler       htamler.chi@xerox.com
At-large               Mike Van Riper      vanriper.chi@xerox.com


             BayCHI -- P.O. Box 25 -- Menlo Park, CA -- 94026
 
 
************************************************************************

                           DIRECTIONS TO XEROX PARC
 
>From Highway 280, take the Page Mill Road exit. Go east one mile to
Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn right. Go 1/2 mile and PARC will
be on your left. Follow the signs to the auditorium.

>From 101, take the Oregon Expressway exit west 2 miles to El Camino
Real.  Oregon Expressway becomes Page Mill Road at El Camino Real.
Follow Page Mill Road 1.7 miles to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn
left.  Coyote Hill Road is just past the intersection with Foothill
Expressway. Go 1/2 mile and PARC will be on your left. Follow the signs
to the auditorium.

For a map, see http://www.parc.xerox.com/images/maptoparc.gif.

************************************************************************

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------- End of Forwarded Message