Abstract This paper describes Menv, an environment for the development of interactive three‐dimensional modelling and animation systems. Menv supports both interactive and procedural techniques. Systems built upon Menv are implemented as a set of independent, co‐operating tools operating upon a shared workspace. Models are defined in a high‐level procedural language with calls to graphical primitives. Animation data is bound to the model through the use of time‐varying articulated variables.

A reimplementation of the UNIX TM file system is described.The reimplementation provides substantially higher throughput rates by using more flexible allocation policies that allow better locality of reference and can be adapted to a wide range of peripheral and processor characteristics.The new file system clusters data that is sequentially accessed and provides two block sizes to allow fast access to large files while not wasting large amounts of space for small files.File access rates of up to ten times faster than the traditional UNIX file system are experienced.Long-needed enhancements to the programmers' interface are discussed.These include a mechanism to place advisory locks on files, extensions of the name space across file systems, the ability to use long file names, and provisions for administrative control of resource usage.