Stephen Travis Pope introduces and compares various software programs for computer music and live performance. He focuses his analysis on the possibilities to manipulate and represent the high-level abstractions of musical data structures.

List of software: - Sound Kit (sampled signal editing tool) - Kyma (music composition package) - ARA (knowledge-based software to describe work) - DoubleTalk (predicate-transition or PrT diagrams) - MODE (compositional algorithms and tools) - Alternate Reality Kit (visual programming) - ThinkerToy (modeling decision support) - Chinese Temple Design Toolkit (aid in the process of refinement of a design)