The implementation of the PROPHET system

Abstract

PROPHET is a computer system designed to augment the information-handling capabilities of individual scientists. It is oriented toward the needs of pharmacologists, medicinal chemists, and other scientists who study how chemical substances affect biological activity. The system hardware consists of a large time-sharing computer connected over telephone lines to display terminals (Figure 1) in medical schools, hospitals, and other pharmacological research centers. PROPHET's software provides a computing environment, tailored to deal with chemical and biological information, which allows non-programming users to perform complex operations and also supports programming users who wish to extend the system in new ways. PROPHET's purpose is to aid individual research rather than to distribute existing data bases; it does, however, possess capabilities and data structures to facilitate the sharing of data and algorithms between users.