From: daley@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil (John Daley)
Subject: System 7 and Virtual Worlds
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 14:53:05 PDT



Hello all,

Saw the posting asking the question about Apple's System 7.0 and virtual
worlds. System 7's balloon help feature is not intended to mimic any sort
of humanized help interface, but "Old Baldie" is correct, I believe, when
he implies that Apple is openning the door to a Guide-like help interface.

In fact, if you review the presentations at ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGCHI, Apple
has an experimental program called Guide. It uses a digitized human that
interacts with a student in a structured training environment. The student
can ask questions or respond to them by making selections in a hypertext.

Apple is once again providing a standardized base specification (in this
case for help systems), onto which developers can build. I think systems
like Guide can provide a tremendous functionality, while exploring new
interface concepts.

This is all opinion, but I hope it sheds some light on your questions. Please
send me some mail if you have further questions or comments.

Thanks,

John

_________________________________________________________________________
Chairman
NPS Macintosh User Group
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 93940

daley@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil          The above represent my opinions only,
                                      not necessarily those of anyone else.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------