Tecate: a Software Platform for Browsing and Visualizing Data from Networked Data Sources

Tecate is a new infrastructure on which applications can be constructed that allow end users to browse for and then visualize data within networked data sources. This software platform capitalizes on the architectural strengths of current scientific visualization systems, network browsers like Netscape, database management system front ends, and virtual reality systems. Applications layered on top of Tecate are able to browse for information in databases managed by database management systems and for information contained in the World Wide Web. In addition, Tecate dynamically crafts user interfaces and interactive visualizations of selected data sets with the aid of an intelligent system. This system automatically maps many kinds of data sets into a virtual world that can be explored directly by end users. In describing these virtual worlds, Tecate uses an interpretive language that is also capable of performing arbitrary computations and mediating communications among different processes.