About The Open Prograph Initiative
(The dream that might have been...)
Prograph CPX was an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Macintosh and Windows developed by the now defunct Pictorius, Inc., of Nova Scotia. Prograph itself was an almost 100% visual programming language. That is, there was virtually no typing as the code consisted entirely of icons arranged in a window. The only typing required was for the naming of icons (and entering of comments). There were many benefits to programming this way but the idea has yet to gain wide support in the programming industry. More information about Prograph can be found on Taylor Design's Datalink: The Prograph Pages or Tritera Incorporated's Made With Prograph List (Newly updated). (See also the Prograph page on Wikipedia for history and criticism.)
Prograph should have been updated in step with changes in the Macintosh and Windows operating systems if it was to remain a viable programming language and environment. Unfortunately, Pictorius dropped the ball for one reason or another and there were no significant updates to Prograph after some time in 1996. While the Windows version of Prograph CPX can still be used on Windows XP, with no manufacturer support the environment is basically a dead end. (Before it was updated yesterday, the number of dead links on the Tritera page was quite instructive. (Note that no criticism of the Tritera website or its webmaster was intended by this mention!))
The Open Prograph Initiative (OPI), which grew out of the Prograph Developers Network (PDN), began as a group of Prograph users and supporters who wanted to see the language survive. Working in conjunction with Pictorius before that company's demise, the OPI came up with a plan of action and was granted an open source agreement for the ABCs and ABEs (Application Builder Classes and Editors, respectively). Through the efforts of a few members of the group, the ABCs and ABEs were updated and a framework devised which permitted the continued use of CPX, including for a time the compilation of Carbon applications that ran on Mac OS X. This essentially came to an end with the Mac OS 10.2.5 system update, which brought to the fore a well-known stack alignment problem in the Prograph compiler and rendered compiled applications unusable on G4 machines (the famed "Rainbow Windows"). Note that this problem might have been overcome if the Toronto-based investment firm which had gained control of the original program code had open-sourced the compiler.
After negotiations with the Toronto investors fell apart, there was some movement in the OPI to begin work on completely new, open-source replacements for Prograph CPX (see the OSPGLI and Exegraph sections of this site). While ongoing at this time, these efforts do not yet enjoy wide support from the general OPI membership. Several members also decided to release their combined work in this direction as a new commercial application (still essentially betaware at Version 1.1).
Years of delays and outright lies by Pictorius and the investment firm in Toronto have left the OPI dispirited and fragmented and have effectively destroyed any possibility of it succeeding in its mandate. This section of this website is being maintained as a memorial to a dream which might have been.
(The above is the admittedly pessimistic opinion of the webmaster. Balanced editing by OPI members with different ideas welcomed.)