Re: "Is it Xanadu yet?"

[Andrew Pam <avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Are we getting any closer to an Internet-based Xanadu?  Are you willing to
> commit to an ETA?

I've forwarded your message to Ted, but here's my (unofficial) take:

* Project Xanadu (and Xanadu Australia) are now sponsors of Hyper-G.
  Hyper-G was designed as an implementation of many of the Xanadu ideas
  as expressed in "Literary Machines", but backwards compatible with
  Gopher and WWW.  It also has many clever ideas not proposed by Xanadu
  such as full-text indexing, streaming video, and the P-flood
  algorithm.  I expect to see some interesting developments using
  Hyper-G in the near future.

* I understand Gordon Whiting is working on a SQL based implementation.

* Ted has working prototypes of a Zippered List editor running on
  Intelligent Pad at the Sapporo Hyperlab.  This will be, to the best of
  my knowledge, the first Xanadu front end (as opposed to the focus on
  the back end over the last three decades).

* Ted is meeting with Marc Andreesen next week.

* I have some ideas of my own up my sleeve.

* We no longer make ETA announcements, due to the current reputation for
  vapourware.  We will only announce released products or beta programs.

* I don't feel that the vapourware charge is entirely fair, since Xanadu
  per se has always been an idea or platform, irrespective of attempts
  to create particular implementations.  To that end, the name "Xanadu"
  will now be applied as a label to certify any software meeting the
  published specifications, whether written by one of the Xanadu teams
  or by others.

I hope that goes some way to answering your questions; I am planning to
put these answers into the FAQ once I get time to revise it.

Share and enjoy,
		*** AVATAR ***
-- 
<mailto:avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>                  Andrew Pam
<http://www.aus.xanadu.com/xanadu/>             Coordinator, Xanadu Australia
<http://www.glasswings.com.au/GlassWings/>      Technical Editor, Glass Wings
<http://www.sericyb.com.au/sc/>                 Manager, Serious Cybernetics
P.O. Box 409, Canterbury VIC 3126 Australia     Phone +61 3 96511511