The authoring environment consists of a development program and a runtime program. The development program is used to construct and test the product, and this is then compiled as a runtime version. The development program is Macintosh based with runtime packages being developed for either platform. The runtime application memory allocation with depend on a number of factors with the basic break up of the following form. Total approximately 2 Megabytes Because of the memory management built into MediaPlant, the runtime applications will run in less memory, but there will be a speed overhead.
Applications can also use more memory by holding more media elements in memory if it is available.
The development program metaphor is based upon a tree file structure with pull down menus for the authoring process. A graphic design interface has not been developed for this stage of the environment development. The file structure metaphor, has a drag and drop and editing widow facility for each element. The structure is completely versatile in that each element below the container level is named either with a presumed location, which is its tree structure location, or can be given a prefix file location. This structure has a number of advantages in that it allows multiple use of resources, allows the developer to manage the data elements in whichever way best suites their preferred design style and with use of the 'drop and drag facility' allows easy and rapid rearrangement of the data elements.