EASI Procedures are similar to BASIC programs and are written in a similar 
fashion. They may contain commands, programs from the set of compiled tasks 
and calls to other EASI procedures. Any command that can be entered in 
direct mode can be used in a procedure. Procedures are written interactively 
and can be saved, deleted, listed, edited, copied, executed and catalogued 
within EASI so there is no need to learn the host computer's operating 
system, editors, compilers, linkers or other utilities. On the other hand, 
EASI procedures can usually be edited, copied, etc. using the host utilities 
as well, and from within EASI, all the host capabilities can be accessed 
(although to use these will destroy the machine independence of the procedure 
using them). 
EASI/PACE 
EASI/PACE is a complete digital image analysis software system which has been 
developed using IMP as the development tool and EASI as the user interface. 
It is designed for research and production on single or multi-user systems. 
By developing the system under  EASI/IMP, PCI has produced a system which 
appears to the user as independent of the host and display (within their 
hardware limitations). EASI/PACE is available on a wide range of 
computer/operating systems including Digital Equipment VAX and micro-VAX 
running VMS, Perkin-Elmer 0S/32, 680X0 UNIX workstations and the IBM PC-AT 
and equivalents running MS/DOS.  (EASI/IMP is also available for the Control 
Data Cyber series with the NOS/VE operating system.) Displays supported 
include ADAGE, ARIES, COMTAL, GOULD, EBBA, PICTRAL, IMAVISION and MASSCOMP. 
Because of the fundamental design concepts, it is relatively easy to convert 
the software to different computers, operating systems and displays. 
The machine independent nature of EASI/PACE provides several powerful 
advantages to the user: 
* The system can be adapted to existing hardware 
+ Hardware changes/upgrades need not make software obsolete 
* No new training needed for software on different systems 
A list of the PACE functions is provided in Figure 4. 
The complete PACE system, which was originally developed on a DEC PDP-11 and 
subsequently considerably expanded, has been converted to operate on several 
computers including the IBM PC-AT, which forms the heart of our IMAVISION 
system (jointly developed with Roy Ball Associates). With over 13 Megabytes 
of object code in the PC system, we at PCI believe that this may be the 
largest software system available on a personal computer. We could not have 
performed the conversion task without EASI/IMP. 
SUMMARY OF EASI/IMP BENEFITS 
Increased User Productivity 
A user is most productive with an environment tailored to his/her skill level 
and operational needs. The new or casual user may need detailed help 
documentation and menu-guidance, while the experienced regular user may work 
best in a terse command mode. All will want to automate repetetive tasks. 
EASI provides each of these functions with a choice of Command, Menu, 
Procedure and Prompt interfaces in a single environment. 
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