This paper describes the design of HotJava Views, a user environment and suite of applications for a Network Computer.A Network Computer differs from the common Personal Computer in that it has no permanent local storage, but instead obtains its software and data as needed over the network from a central server.We have abandoned some characteristic features of current GUI interfaces, such as the desktop metaphor, file systems, and the distinction between applications and documents.Our design principles are focused on simplicity, efficiency of operation, clarity of the interaction model, and tight integration between applications.

Fabrik is a visual programming environment - a kit of computational and user-interface components that can be “wired” together to build new components and useful applications. Fabrik diagrams utilize bidirectional dataflow connections as a shorthand for multiple paths of flow. Built on object-oriented foundations. Fabrik components can compute arbitrary objects as outputs. Music and animation can be programmed in this way and the user interface can even be extended by generating graphical structures that depend on other data. An interactive type system guards against meaningless connections. As with simple dataflow, each Fabrik component can be compiled into an object with access methods corresponding to each of the possible paths of data propagation.