Abstract: A system and method for storage and retrieval of objects. The objects are stored on a permanent medium in a manner to allow for fast recovery of the objects from the medium. The objects are stored in a format that is structurally equivalent to the format of the objects on a volatile medium, such as memory of a general-purpose computer. Objects are stored according to a data relationship with other objects. The objects may be stored as a stream of objects and offset references. Offset references are converted to actual memory addresses as objects are retrieved into the volatile medium.

Abstract: A workstation that employs methods to construct computer programs through use of visual graphical representations. Computer programs are illustrated as visual road maps of the intended sequence of actions. Each operational entity in a program graph on the screen is represented as an elemental "atomic" unit, called a "Softron". The Softron is a multidimensional, graphical "atom" of programming information which has four modes of operation, termed "layers". The four layers are Normal, where the basic functionally of the application resides; Initialization/Reset, responsible both for the startup values of important variables and for their values at strategic checkpoints; Error, which handles conditions outside design limits; and Input/Output, which performs human input/output and other I/O tasks. Softrons reside in very general form in the workstation's library, and are optimized by the process of specialization. Softrons may be grouped to form new Softrons by a process called Logical Zoom (TM).