🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <SARREL.89Feb9190611@coracle.cis.ohio-state.edu> sarrel@coracle.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marc Sarrel) writes:
>One of the things that I like about UNIX that isn't on the Mac is the
>ability to use pipes.  Does anyone know if Apple has any plans to
>create a graphical pipe system for the Mac?  I envision something
>along the following lines:
 ...

Yes!  Such a thing is desperately needed!

I use MPW from time to time, and I can't stand the shell.  A graphical
piping system which inherently included a makefile capability would
allow me to throw the shell away.  I would even accept severe limitations
on the power of expression one gets in the shell if it meant that I could
work with compilers and linkers graphically, because I believe that if
one is writing a program with a visual user interface one should deal
with visual interfaces as much as possible.

I am working on such a graphical replacement for the MPW shell right now,
but it will be of limited utility as long as it is not linked to MultiFinder
and does not have hooks to the desktop.  As Apple have threatened to take
away the existing facilities for doing such things, and as they have
made good of such threats in the past, these modifications should come
from inside Apple to maintain compatibility, or Apple should provide a
much better set of tools for dealing with the Finder.

For an early version of the graphical pipe ideas, see "A Data-flow
Manager for Interactive Graphics" by Paul Haeberli of Silicon Graphics,
published in _IRIS_Universe_, Fall 1987.

Eric Pepke                           pepke%fsu.mfenet@nmfecc.arpa
Supercomputer Computations           pepke%scri.hepnet@lbl-csa2.arpa
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