1992 - 1994 Project Development Tools Client EO Task Design & Build Tools C, Glyphic Script Solution New object oriented language development environment

Building Better Programming Tools

In the Spring of '92 Glyphic Technology set out on a mission to create a new kind of programming environment. Based on the idea of direct programming, where the program's data is directly manipulatable on the screen, we created the Codeworks programming environment and the Glyphic Script language. By the Summer of '92 we had a fully functional version running on the Macintosh platform.

After demonstrating Codeworks at OOPSLA, we caught the interest of EO. EO was creating a hand-held pen based computer for "mobile professionals", incorporating the PenPoint operating system from GO. The problem: Applications for PenPoint had to be written in a proprietary object extension to C, to a new set of OS APIs, and cross compiled under DOS. It was a difficult task requiring training for programmers already proficient in C.

The solution was to port Codeworks to the EO platform. Glyphic did the port and further refined and customized the technology so that the system was fully integrated into the PenPoint OS. Applications built with Codeworks had the same look and feel as other applications running on the EO computer. The ease of creating and testing applications in Codeworks on the EO computer enabled a wide range of custom, enterprise applications.

The project with EO went well for two main reasons: First, since we developed the technology before working with EO, they were able to leverage the work that we had done, without having to do the risky early technology development themselves. Second, we worked as an independent, off-site, engineering team. While EO's marketing organization wanted this type of product, all internal engineering effort was directed at getting the base system running.

The sad end of the story is that EO did not stay in business. While there was a short time when one could buy the EO 440 Communicator in AT&T phone stores, they didn't get the chance to build a following. We still have ours, serial number 12, sitting in the corner of the office.