Your browser does not support JavaScript!
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com
1887

High-level extensions for user-interface programming

High-level extensions for user-interface programming

For access to this article, please select a purchase option:

Buy article PDF
£12.50
(plus tax if applicable)
Add to cart
Buy Knowledge Pack
10 articles for £75.00
(plus taxes if applicable)
Add to cart

IET members benefit from discounts to all IET publications and free access to E&T Magazine. If you are an IET member, log in to your account and the discounts will automatically be applied.

Learn more about IET membership 

Recommend Title Publication to library

You must fill out fields marked with: *

Librarian details
Name:*
Email:*
Your details
Name:*
Email:*
Department:*
Why are you recommending this title?
Select reason:
 
 
 
 
 
Software Engineering Journal — Recommend this title to your library

Thank you

Your recommendation has been sent to your librarian.

© The Institution of Electrical Engineers
Published

Many user-interface toolkits, screen management facilities and user-interface managements systems (UIMS) have been developed in the last few years for creating user interfaces. These systems, however, normally require the user to learn a new programming language or set of techniques. Extending conventional programming languages has the advantage that the same language can be used for describing both the application and the user interface. In addition, both the application's view of the data and the user's view of the data can be specified by the same type system, in a consistent and elegant way. In this paper, we outline several drawbacks of conventional high-level procedural languages and present extensions to Pascal to facilitate user-interface programming. The goal is to provide a language where the display items, dialogue control rules, application software, concurrent operations, and dynamic program linking can all be easily programmed in the same language, without resorting to an assembler language or another language. The extensions have been used in implementing several microelectronics fabrication systems. Although these are specific applications, the extensions can be helpful in programming textual user interfaces in other application areas, such as process control, manufacturing control and real-time systems.

Inspec keywords: high level languages; software engineering; user interfaces; Pascal

Other keywords: user-interface toolkits; user-interface management systems; programming language; user-interface programming; screen management facilities; high-level procedural languages; Pascal

Subjects: Software engineering techniques; High level languages; User interfaces

References

    1. 1)
      • D.J. Kasik . A user interface management system. Comput. Graph. , 3 , 99 - 106
    2. 2)
      • P. Brinch-Hansen . The programming language Concurrent Pascal. IEEE Trans. , 2 , 199 - 207
    3. 3)
      • `Hewlett-Packard Corporation: HP 3000 Computer System VIEW/3000 Reference Manual', 1979, 32209-900001.
    4. 4)
      • P. Norton , P. Yao . (1990) , Windows 3.0 power programming techniques.
    5. 5)
      • Dewan, P., Vasilik, E.: `An approach to integrating user interface management systems with programming languages', Proc. IFIP Working Conf. on Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction, August 1989, North-Holland, , p. 493–514.
    6. 6)
      • L.A. Rowe , K.A. Shoens . Programming language constructs for screen definition. IEEE Trans. , 1 , 31 - 39
    7. 7)
      • Ukelson, J.: `A protocol for efficient man-machine interfaces', 1989, PhD Thesis, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
    8. 8)
      • A. Goldberg , D. Robson . (1983) , Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation.
    9. 9)
      • J.M. Lafuente . Some techniques for compile-time analysis of user-computer interactions. IBM J. Res. Dev. , 6 , 716 - 731
    10. 10)
      • R.D. Hill . Supporting concurrency, communication and synchronization in human-computer interaction — the Sassafras UIMS. ACM Trans. Graph. , 3 , 179 - 210
    11. 11)
      • K. Jensen , N. Wirth . (1975) Pascal user manual and report, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci..
    12. 12)
      • S.C. Dewhurst , K.T. Stark . (1989) , Programming in C++.
    13. 13)
      • N. Wirth . Modula: a language for modular multiprogramming. Softw. Pract.—Exp. , 3 - 35
    14. 14)
      • M. Green . The University of Alberta User Interface Management System. Comput. Graph. , 3 , 205 - 213
    15. 15)
      • K.J. Schmucker . (1986) , Object-oriented programming for the Macintosh.
    16. 16)
      • J.M. Lafuente , D. Gries , E.A. Edmonds . (1982) Language facilities for programming user-computer dialogues, The separable user interface.
    17. 17)
      • McCormack, J., Asente, P.: `An overview of the X toolkit', Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH Symp. on User-Interface Software, 1988, p. 46–55.
    18. 18)
      • E.A. Edmonds . The man-computer interface: a note on concepts and design. Int. J. Man. Mach. Studies , 231 - 236
    19. 19)
      • SC34-0438, EDX Programming Guide Version 4.0, May 1983.
    20. 20)
      • V. Quercia , T. O'Reilly . (1990) , X Window System user's guide.
    21. 21)
      • IBM Corporation: IBM Operating System/2 Version 1.2 Programming Tools and Information: Presentation Manager Programming Reference, 1989.
    22. 22)
      • Olsen, D.R.: `Propositional production systems for dialog description', Proc. CHI '90, 1990, p. 57–63.
    23. 23)
      • M. Green , G.A. Pfaff . (1984) Design notations and user interface management systems, User interface management systems.
    24. 24)
      • M. Green , G.A. Pfaff . (1984) Presentational syntactic and semantic components of interactive dialogue specifications, User interface management systems.
    25. 25)
      • `IBM Corporation Interactive System Productivity Facility — Dialogue Management Guide', September 1985, SC34-4009.
    26. 26)
      • (1989) Stepstone Corporation, Objective-C language: Version 4.0.
    27. 27)
      • N.H. Gehani . Concurrent C: real-time programming and fault tolerance. Softw. Eng. J. , 3 , 83 - 92
    28. 28)
      • Go Corporation: PenPoint Architectural Reference, Foster City, California, 1992.
    29. 29)
      • Rhyne, J.R.: `Extensions to C for interface programming', Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH Symp. on User Interface Software, October 1988, Alberta, Canada, p. 30–45.
    30. 30)
      • Ashton Tate: ‘Learning and using dBASE III PIus’. 1986.
    31. 31)
      • `IBM Corporation: Display Management System/Virtual Storage General Information Manual', 1979, GH20-18863.
    32. 32)
      • B.A. Myers . User interface tools: introduction and survey. IEEE Softw. , 1 , 15 - 24
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/sej.1992.0041
Loading

Related content

content/journals/10.1049/sej.1992.0041
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6
Loading
Print this page
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address