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ThingLab

ThingLab is a visual programming environment implemented in Smalltalk and designed at Xerox PARC by Alan Borning.

A conventional system allows a user to provide inputs that produce outputs. A constraint-oriented system, such as ThingLab, allows the user to provide arbitrary inputs or outputs, then solves for whatever is unknown. ThingLab is viewed as one of the earliest constraint-oriented systems.

ThingLab is credited in "Fumbling the Future" as a big reason Xerox continued to fund computer development.

Watch videos about ThingLabExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article ThingLab, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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