A Remote-controlled User Interface Server

Modern software is now expected to be used via sophist icated hig h Iy-i nte ract ive graph ic i nte rfaces. Unfortunately, the development of these interfaces requires much investment in both hardware and programming effort. In the paper, we describe TeleMac, a general-purpose, user interface "server" which runs on a MacintoshTM micro-computer but is remote-controlled via a simple RS-232 connection by an appl ication runn ing on a different host computer. TeleMac provides most of the typical Macintosh featu res such as multiple windows, mouse selection , graph ics , dialogues and vo ice synthesis. It also implements so me high level concepts such as connected graphs (not graphics) above and beyond the Macintosh primitives. Most of all , it was designed to be easy to integrate into application programs. In the paper, we discuss the design of TeleMac, give examples of its use and outline its implementation.