An Open-architecture Application Environment

Views is an open-architecture application environment that offers a consistent user interface across applications, interoperability between them, much less programming to produce an application, and the ability to add and modify applications on the fly. The system kernel contains a user interface layer and a persistent data-storage layer, so that applications only have to implement the true functionality. Objects contain no information on how they are to be displayed, so the presentation of documents can be changed easily, even on the fly. The main implementation technique is the use of invariants between objects which are automatically made two-way by the system. This document describes some aspects of programming for Views. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 68Q52, 68N20, 68U99. 1991 CR Categories: D.2.6, D.3.3, D.3.4, D.3.2.