Computers need several hardware devices, software routines, and data resources to control the delivery of videodisk-based materials. They need an interface to extract instructions from the User, a component to translate User requests into an ordered sequence of specific actions, and device drivers to control display by videodisk players. These components can be very simple or highly complex, providing different levels of functionality and "friendliness" to the user.

An ideal delivery system will provide extensive User resources, accessible through a transparent, easy-to-use interface. Disk contents must be described by database structures which capture meaningful, accurate information: computer searches and manipulation of these data representations must yield reasonable, repeatable results. The system should include intelligent routines which minimize demands on the user and automatically optimize the personal environment. Several existing systems make progress towards these goals, and many good paradigms have been refined, but no single design has been overwhelmingly successful.

Videodisk authoring and delivery systems pose critical, unanswered design questions which will bestow immortality on the foresighted and doom the machine-dependent. Proper construction of these resources, and useful routines for their exploitation, also raise difficult issues of perception and cognition. These issues are discussed in the context of an experimental videodisk-based workstation for students, currently being constructed with the assistance of M.I.T.'s Film/Video Section.