In article <··············@tingeling.lysator.liu.se>, MC
<··@lysator.liu.se> wrote:
> I'd like to follow up my own article on the MGR Window System by
> saying an ideal user interface system, in my mind, would be something
> like MGR when it comes to a window system, with each new window
> containing a Forth text interpreter, complete with editing
> facilities. This would probably look much like the Emacs Lisp
> Interaction *scratch* buffer.
Yep, let's reinvent.
The Symbolics Lisp machines had the following ideas:
- there are command tables
-- store a set of commands
-- inherit commands from other command tables
-- commands can have arguments
- commands can be invoked
-- by calling a lisp function
-- by entering a command in a command line interface
-- by clicking on an "active object" on the screen
-- by pressing keys
-- using menus
- the command interpreter manages:
-- history
-- prompting
-- parsing of the arguments
-- validating the arguments
-- generating dialogs for commands
-- online help
-- editing command lines
-- completion of commands and arguments
- the command interpreter has:
-- its own lightweight thread
-- and associated command table
-- a window pane which can be put in an application frame
-- can be used with a mouse
For an example for an application with an embedded command
line interface see the "Symbolics Document Examiner",
an early hypertext system:
You can see some screen shots at:
http://www.lavielle.com/~joswig/docex.html
For an introdution into object oriented presentation
based user interface technology see:
http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~moeller/uims-clim/clim-intro.html
I have put a short example of a typical session with the
Symbolics Lisp Listener at:
http://www.lavielle.com/~joswig/listener/listener.html
Greetings,
Rainer Joswig