After intensive preparation the new Wonderland website goes online with a first set of features - an idea of how Wonderland intends to improve the work around the optical laboratory in the future.

A new view on measurement technology

One thing that experienced buyers of measurement technology will notice immediately: you will not find photographs of the devices presented on our site. At Wonderland the view is directed at pure functionality, at consistency and interoperability. Pictures would only distort that view, which is why you are welcome to look at them on the manufacturers pages if the visual impression really matters to you. At Wonderland we show every device in a strongly simplified, isometric representation as a black box. What matters to you is not what happens inside the black box - what matters is what goes in and what comes out.

All interfaces of a device, whether data connections or inputs and outputs for electrical and optical signals, are therefore colour coded in the illustration. Electrical inputs, for example, are yellow, electrical outputs red, data interfaces green. Optical inputs and outputs you will still search for in vain today, but they will be shown in blue and violet in the future. If you want an even more striking view of the data flows, toggle the connector symbol on the illustration. The data flows show in even more detail which signals are to be regarded as digital and which as analogue, or which signals are periodic in nature and which are stochastic. The white time star also shows you where the device gets its time base from and how it shares it with other devices.

Using artificial intelligence

Building this website and such complex schematic representations would not have been possible in such a short time without the use of artificial intelligence. The site uses the TYPO3 content management system, which I had worked with before. Given the complexity of that system, however, I would not have trusted myself to program the required extension, at least not within a few weeks. Artificial intelligence has now changed that and made it possible to develop at least this draft within six weeks. I decided on the DeepSeek Flash model as a coding agent and I am quite happy with the result. On the one hand because it works technically, on the other hand because I see a reflection of my ideas in the result.

My view of my own way of working has changed noticeably in the process, and I do things differently today than I would have a few weeks ago. This text, for example, I write in German. "Colleague DeepSeek" then translates it into English, which is also meant to be made visible. In German I am simply able to formulate more precisely and more authentically than I can in English - even though I have always got along quite well with my English. But making use of these possibilities, instead of writing the same text twice or doing without a German version altogether - that is something the more intensive engagement with these technical aids over the last few weeks has first made possible for me.

This is only the beginning

When browsing the website you will notice that much is still incomplete, that many specifications are missing and that there certainly is one bug or another. That is allowed to be the case for the moment, because we are only now entering a beta phase in which the exchange with users becomes particularly important. What you find here is a draft of what we envisage. What will be decisive later is your experience from the beginning of the process to the end: from your vague idea, through researching the possibilities and realising your experiment, to publishing your results. Our site covers only a small part of that so far, but the ambition is to accompany the whole process in the long term. In that sense it is now up to you to talk to us about your experiences - both about your experiences with our site and about those from scientific practice that you do not yet see represented here. We are currently in an exciting phase in which much is still malleable.

While writing this text I often wavered between the singular and the plural. At the moment Wonderland Systems is still a one-man business, so one may ask whether one is allowed to speak of "we" at all. I have solved this for myself by using the plural where I speak for the company, because then there are at least two persons - one natural and one legal. The singular remains reserved for my personal opinion and my own experiences.