ThingLab is a visual programming environment implemented in Smalltalk[1] and designed at Xerox PARC by Alan Borning.

A conventional system allows a user to provide inputs that produce outputs. A constraint-oriented system, such as ThingLab, allows the user to provide arbitrary inputs or outputs, then solves for whatever is unknown. ThingLab is viewed as one of the earliest constraint-oriented systems.[according to whom?]

ThingLab is credited in "Fumbling the Future" as a big reason Xerox continued to fund computer development.

References

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  1. ^ Borning, Alan (October 1981). "The Programming Language Aspects of ThingLab, a Constraint-Oriented Simulation Laboratory". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems. 3 (4): 353–387. doi:10.1145/357146.35714 (inactive 22 April 2026). Retrieved March 11, 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of April 2026 (link)
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Object-oriented programming

(3): 69–95. doi:10.1145/155360.155364. Borning, Alan Hamilton (1979). Thinglab: a constraint-oriented simulation laboratory (PDF) (Report). Stanford University

Visual programming language

a language and IDE for visually creating desktop and mobile software ThingLab DRAKON (Dragon), a SDL- and AADL-influenced visual 2D programming language

Prototype-based programming

of MacLisp) (1976-1979), and contemporaneously and not independently, ThingLab (on top of Smalltalk) (1977-1981), respective PhD projects by Kenneth Michael

Alan H. Borning

Object-oriented programming Constraint programming Programming languages ThingLab Awards ACM Fellow (2001) Scientific career Fields Computer science Institutions

List of computer scientists

object-oriented programming, constraint programming, programming languages, ThingLab Bert Bos – Cascading Style Sheets Mikhail Botvinnik – World Chess Champion

List of programmers

object-oriented programming, constraint programming, programming languages, ThingLab Bert Bos – authored Argo web browser, co-authored Cascading Style Sheets