At the 1987 Alvey Conference, the use of high-powered workstations in cooperative design was demonstrated. A researcher and technician at different locations were shown using workstations connected by high speed communications to design a complex laser facility. Two separate utilities were written using WW to support the design environment. One of these was MUSK, a Multi-User Sketchpad, which enabled mixed text and graphics to be generated by a number of workers using a single common drawing area. The other utility, PIXVIEW, was essentially a software video camera. It enabled one worker to see part or all of the screen of another (with permission). Thus, one worker could, for example, see a complex simulation running which he might not be able to run on his own machine. The demonstration showed the sophistication of user interfaces which could be developed quickly using toolkits developed at Informatics.
