Re: How do I create entities? Please help.

[Andrew Pam <avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm sorry if this is an old and tired question but here goes anyway:

On the contrary, it's an excellent question because you're the first person
to ask it on this mailing list.  :-)

> HOW, on my Mac, can I start (today) to create xanadu entities. I
> have ideas coming out of my head and am frustrated only by a lack
> of tools, knowledge, etc. on how to build the little buggers.

Join the club!  I am constantly frustrated by the existing tools.

> I have read all I can find on the xanadu server (and that's all
> I've found so far) and it simply doesn't tell how, where and when
> (it does tell why but little else).

Keep an eye on the Xanadu FAQ (and on our Gopher/WWW server) for plenty
of reading material, some of which does go into more detail.

> Are the tools in the construction phase or is it still far too early
> and we're still in the discussion and conceptualisation phase?

Both.  Filoli (formerly Memex) is still working on the 1988 server written
in Smalltalk for SunOS, and I believe they are also porting it to NeXTStep.
The Sapporo Hyperlab have released a SunOS evaluation system for IntelliPad,
and the University of Graz in Austria have released SunOS, HP and SGI
binaries for Hyper-G.  For the Mac, you might want to check out HyperTed from
the Monash Medical Informatics Centre here in Melbourne.  I'm also trying to
encourage others to continue to do their own development, as Xanadu America
are.

I came to Xanadu after reading the Microsoft Press reprint of Computer Lib /
Dream Machines in 1987.  I joined the XOC beta team while they were at
Autodesk, and when after a couple of years I received no code and stopped
receiving documentation, I became concerned.  I learned that Autodesk had
dropped the project (in 1992) and made arrangements to fly to the US and
speak to Ted in person.  Katherine and I hit it off with Ted and Marlene,
stayed with them in Ted's Sausalito houseboat on a couple of occasions, met
Tom Jennings, Brewster Kahle and Roger Gregory in the flesh, became the first
Xanadu licencees, and invited Ted to do a tour of Australia (described in
a document on our server).  My policy is to keep up with all the developments
but if I have to I will build the whole darn thing myself.

> Where are the specs if I've got to construct the tools myself?

The Hypermedia Server documentation (for the '88 server) is very useful, and
there is an article in the September 1994 Dr. Dobbs that describes the Ent,
the once-proprietary tree structure originally discovered by the Xanadu team
in the 1970s.  Ents are ideal for log-based filesystems.

> I'm sorry but maybe my frustrtions are starting to show.

I feel that way myself sometimes.

> Thank you, in advance, for any assistance you may offer.

You're welcome - that's what this list is for!

> Regards, Lance Chambers.

Hey, if you're Lance Chambers, who is Peter Stampoultzis?

Share and enjoy,
		*** AVATAR ***

-- 
Andrew Pam                                      avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Manager, Serious Cybernetics                    avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Coordinator, Xanadu Australia                   <http://www.aus.xanadu.com/>
P.O. Box 409, Canterbury VIC 3126 Australia     gopher gopher.aus.xanadu.com