Arthur van Hoff (who wrote the first Java compiler in Java, developed AWT and HotJava, founded Marimba and more recently Flipboard) developed a user interface t

Arthur van Hoff (who wrote the first Java compiler in Java, developed AWT and HotJava, founded Marimba and more recently Flipboard) developed a user interface tool for the NeWS window system inspired by HyperCard, that was called GoodNeWS, HyperNeWS and then HyperLook. http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html It used NeWS PostScript both as its graphics model and its scripting language, and it extended the HyperCard Object=>Card=>Background=>Stack delegation model to send messages over the network to the client (what we now call the web server -- the terms client and server have switched place since then). Wikipedia describes NeWS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS In many ways NeWS had an excellent design for thin-networked clients + moving much of the processing to the display + allowing clients to reduce network traffic by defining new operators + separating graphical user interface semantics from client program semantics. + the PostScript drawing model, which is far easier to use and more powerful than other graphical APIs, even compared to ones being used 20 years later. NeWS was architecturally similar to what is now called AJAX, except that NeWS: + used PostScript code instead of JavaScript for programming. + used PostScript graphics instead of DHTML/CSS for rendering. + used PostScript data instead of XML/JSON for data representation. I worked with Arthur on developing HyperLook into a commercial product, and used it to port SimCity to OpenWindows on the Sun workstation. Here are some brochures, manuals and articles about GoodNeWS/HyperNeWS/HyperLook, and the HyperLook SimCity manual: http://www.scribd.com/collections/3512581/HyperLook-Manual http://www.scribd.com/collections/3512581/HyperLook-Manual Micropolis is the open source descendent of the original SimCity code that I ported to Unix. http://www.micropolisonline.com http://www.micropolisonline.com