An Adaptive Graphical Browser for Napier88

A persistent store, such as that found in Napier88, allows data objects to outlive the execution of a particular program. Using the persistent store entails binding some of the objects in the store to a use in a program invocation. Since the store may evolve incrementally and through the actions of many users, a need arises to discover the names, types and values of objects within the persistent store to effect this binding. This need is met by a browser: a polymorphic program which takes as its parameter any object, and displays some representation of that object. We describe the use and implementation of a graphical browser for Napier88 objects, itself written in Napier88. The browser is adaptive in that it learns incrementally about the types of the objects it encounters.