bam@cs.cmu.edu (Brad Myers) (05/07/91)
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Announcing a new version of Garnet Generating an Amalgam of Realtime, Novel Editors and Toolkits New features in V1.4: * A Motif look-and-feel widget set, implemented entirely in Lisp for full flexibility. * A graphical interface builder, called "Gilt," for creating dialog boxes interactively using the mouse. The Garnet toolkit and interface builder are available from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. The Garnet User Interface Development Environment helps to implement highly-interactive, graphical, direct manipulation programs for X/11 in CommonLisp. Typical applications include: drawing programs such as Macintosh MacDraw, user interfaces for expert systems and other AI applications, box and arrow diagram editors, graphical programming languages, game user interfaces, simulation and process monitoring programs, user interface construction tools, CAD/CAM programs, etc. Garnet does not currently help with text editing (except for small labels or property-sheet fields). General features include: * Coverage of the entire user interface, including the contents of the application windows. * Look-and-feel independence, while still providing a high level of support. * Two complete sets of "widgets:" one with the Garnet look-and-feel and one with Motif. * Optional automatic layout of application data into lists, tables, trees or graphs. * An object-oriented architecture using a prototype-instance model. * Automatic constraint solving, so properties of objects can depend on properties of other objects, and be automatically re-evaluated when the other objects change. * Automatic graphical object updating, since objects are retained and remember their position on the screen. Whenever any property changes, the objects erase and redraw themselves, along with any other damaged objects. * Separation of input handling from graphics programming, through the use of "interactor" objects, which encapsulate interactive behaviors. * Independence from X/11 and its complexities, since programmers using Garnet never make Xlib (CLX) calls or receive Xlib events. In the near future, a sophisticated interactive design tool (called "Lapidary") and an interface to Macintosh QuickDraw will be released. Many other enhancements are planned. Garnet is implemented on top of the CLX interface to X/11, and works in virtually any Common Lisp environment, including Allegro, Lucid, CMU, and Harlequin on Sun, DEC, HP and Apollo machines. Garnet does not use CLOS or any existing X toolkit (such as Xtk or CLIM). The toolkit comes with debugging tools, complete reference manuals, and a tutorial. Garnet is being developed under a grant from DARPA. Papers about Garnet have appeared in OOPSLA (88), SIGCHI (89, 90, 91), ACM TOIS (July 90), and UIST (89), and an overview article is in the November 1990 issue of IEEE Computer (pp. 71-85). Garnet sources are available for free, but you need to have a license from CMU (currently restricted to only US, UK, Canada, and Australia). Send requests (including a full physical mail work address) for additional information or a license to: Brad A. Myers School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (412) 268-5150 garnet@cs.cmu.edu