ThingLab

ThingLab is a visual programming environment implemented in Smalltalk^[1] 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.^{[according to whom?]}

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

References

^ Borning, Alan (October 1981). "The Programming Language Aspects of ThingLab, a Constraint-Oriented Simulation Laboratory". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS). 3 (4): 353–387. doi:10.1145/357146.35714. Retrieved March 11, 2026.

External links

Borning, A. (1979). ThingLab A Constraint-oriented Simulation Laboratory. Stanford University. Retrieved March 11, 2026.
ThingLab Sources

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[1] Borning, Alan (October 1981). "The Programming Language Aspects of ThingLab, a Constraint-Oriented Simulation Laboratory". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS). 3 (4): 353–387. doi:10.1145/357146.35714. Retrieved March 11, 2026.

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