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Telescript is an object-oriented programming language written by General Magic as part of the overall Magic Cap system. Telescript programs used a modified C-like syntax known as High Telescript, and were compiled to a stack-based language called Low Telescript for execution. Low Telescript ran within virtual machine interpreters, or "Telescript engines", on host computers. The basic model of Telescript is similar to Java, and differs primarily in where the applications would run. Java was modelled to make it possible to download Java applications onto any platform and run them locally. Telescript essentially reversed this, allowing end-user equipment with limited capabilities to upload Telescript programs to servers to allow them to take advantage of the server's capabilities. Telescript could even migrate a running program; the language included features to marshal a program's code and serialized state, transfer it to another Telescript engine (on a device or a server) to continue execution, and finally return to the originating client or server device to deliver its output. General Magic had originally developed as a team within Apple Inc., and were spun off in 1990. When they began to generate some press buzz in 1992, Apple decided to enter the same market with their Newton tablet computer. General Magic were unable to find a niche within the market, and Telescript services were soon deprecated in favor of new products unrelated to mobile computing. ==History== In 1990, Marc Porat convinced then-Apple-CEO John Sculley that the future of computing lay not in desktop personal computers, but much smaller portable devices combining computing power, communications systems, and data located on network-accessible servers. He noted that portable computers would always have less power than the machines they would connect to, and suggested that this be part of the design - instead of trying to build a portable computer that could perform the tasks of a desktop system, the portable device should invisibly use the computational power of the servers to produce a similar result. Scully agreed to allow Porat to begin researching the concepts under the code-name Pocket Crystal. Key members of the early team were Porat, and famous Macintosh developers Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld. The team quickly found themselves ignored by upper management and left continually struggling for resources. They approached Scully again with the idea of spinning off Pocket Crystal as a separate company. Scully agreed to this, as well as the idea of inviting in new partners on the hardware side. The new company, General Magic (GM), was created in May 1990 with 10% stakes held by Apple, Sony and Motorola. The company ranks soon filled out with other ex-Macintosh alumni, including Joanna Hoffman, Susan Kare, Dan Winkler, Bruce Leak and Phil Goldman. By 1992 GM had signed development agreements with a number companies to work with the Magic Cap environment, including Sony, Motorola, Matsushita, Philips, British Telecom and AT&T Corporation. This generated considerable press "buzz". Apple had already Newton project, which at that time was a design for a larger hand-held tablet-like computer. With General Magic's success in the press, they re-positioned the Newton squarely in the same market and rushed it to release in 1993. They also sold their stake in General Magic and sued them. General Magic's partners did not release hardware until 1994, by which time the Newton had essentially defined what a personal digital assistant (PDA) should be, and PDA systems were being judged on their handwriting recognition capabilities. Magic Cap was a point and click interface (similar to Hypercard or the modern iOS). By 1995 the company was a shell of its former self and most of the original developers had left. In 1996 Steve Markman was hired to take over, and he hired Kevin Surace to take the company in a new direction. A new team developed the Portico telephone-based personal assistant system, which lives on today as the basis of OnStar. The original handheld group was spun off in 1998 as DataRover Mobile Systems Incorporated and later renamed Icras in 2000,〔Dan Hanttula, ("Magic Mirror" ), ''Pen Computing'', April 2000〕 serving a number of vertical markets before shutting down in 2001.〔Mark Beaulieu, ("Wireless Internet Applications and Architecture" ), Addison-Wesley Professional, 2002, 9780201733549, p. 12.〕 The remains of the original company were liquidated in 2004. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Telescript (programming language)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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