
1.2 Programming without a Textual Programming Language 9
Stagecast Creator, a novice programming system for constructing simu-
lations from Stagecast Software, Inc., founded by the authors and others
in 1997, is the culmination of a seven-year research and development effort,
the first five at Apple Computer (Smith, Cypher, and Spohrer 1994; Cypher
and Smith 1995; Smith and Cypher 1995; Smith, C~her, and Schmucker
1996). The project, initially called KidSim, was later renamed Cocoa, and
finally became Creator. The goal was to make computers more useful in ed-
ucation. The co-inventors of Creator~the authors