SK8
 |
|
| Paradigm | Object-oriented |
|---|---|
| Developer | Apple Computer |
| First appeared | Mid 1990s |
| Stable release |
0.9
|
| Typing discipline | Strong, dynamic |
| OS | Mac OS |
| License | open source |
| Major implementations | |
| Macintosh Common Lisp | |
| Influenced | |
| AppleScript | |
SK8 (pronounced "skate") was a multimedia authoring environment developed in Apple's Advanced Technology Group from 1988 until 1997. The project's goal was to allow creative designers to create a complex, working application. The main components of SK8 included the object system, the programming language, the graphics and components libraries, and the Project Builder, an integrated development environment. It was described as "HyperCard on steroids".
For much of its history, SK8 remained a research project, and inspired a number of other Apple projects like AppleScript, as well as seeing use as a prototyping platform. Although around 1993 a team was assigned by the Apple Product Division to release a SK8 runtime, the limitation of the Mac's capabilities as well as the shift to the PowerPC chip made such a large project intractable. With the bulk of the original vision completed and no easy path to release as part of MacOS, active development ended in 1996-1997, and the Macintosh Common Lisp source code for the entire project was released to the public in 1997.
The SK8 project was created by Ruben Kleiman when he joined Apple in 1987. He had come to Apple to develop a flexible, object-oriented user interface and multimedia development environment. The name of the project derived from his interest in skateboarding. Coincidentally, at this time the HyperCard, with its direct manipulation interface and scripting language, was about to ship. While HyperCard was great for simple applications it used a limited interaction model - the "stacks" of cards" - that limited its potential applicability. SK8 attempted to extend these benefits to a wider programming role.
Early work on what would become SK8 focused on infrastructure rather than visual programming. Kleiman's first effort was a dynamic, prototype-based object system, MacFrames, a frame/object system with plug-ins for inference engines. Through preferences settings, MacFrames was used to emulate a large variety of object systems, including IntelliCorp's KEE. This research, in concert with users developing actual applications and prototypes at Apple, yielded the object model used in SK8. MacFrames was developed in Coral Lisp, which was acquired by Apple and became Macintosh Common Lisp.
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