for Education and Entertainment
April 7, 2005: New mirror - where you are now seeing this page. The
original site is no longer accessible to me and the main page has been
hacked, so all links should be updated to point here instead.
August 2, 1999: This project has been split in two:
October 8, 1998: Older news -
March 5, 1998.
a short introduction to the Project
Answers to frequently asked questions about Merlin
how it works: Inside Merlin
Merlin's Museum where you can look at old prototypes
a short introduction to Self and to Object Oriented Programming
tiny implementation of the Self language for Linux
a peek at what is coming up.
Merlin, King Arthur's magician, used his great powers to help other people. Likewise, the Merlin Computer was designed to make its powers available to people with no previous experience with computers.
Much of the complexity of modern PCs is due to historical reasons which don't make much sense considering today's technology. Though compatibility with the installed base of computers, networks and peripherals is a very important goal, this project is based on the idea that many people still don't use computers; so it is easier to change the machine's design than to change ( train ) everyone. If file systems confuse novices, for example, then it is better to replace them with a persistent object store. If huge applications are too overwhelming and brittle, then users should be able to "snap together" custom solutions from reusable objects.