rlh2@ukc.ac.uk (R.L.Hesketh) (05/27/91)
I was recently given a photocopy of an article in the January 91 issue of
the Hewlett-Packard Journal by Mark A. Champine entitled "A Visual User
Interface for the HP-UX and Domain Operating Systems". This article
describes the HP Visual User Environment. Can anyone give me more details
about this product? .. are there any more references to papers that I can
get hold of?
I am particularly interested in how the Style and Workspace managers work.
User interface tailoring is one of my research areas and these two
managers seem very useful. I don't have access to any HP kit so I cannot
get to see this environment in action.
The Style manager appears to perform some basic tailoring functions to
the user's general environment, e.g. changing background colours and
fonts. Does it also allow interactive modification of individual
applications? It appears to use the HP SoftBench to send messages
between applications .. can anyone give me references to this software
system?
Technical details would be best (like "it uses X properties to send
messages) but glossy brochure style description would also be very
useful. I hope to be visiting HP LABS in Bristol (UK) soon .. can anyone
give some suggestions of what ask to look at in relation to HP VUE and
other UI developments?
Can someone also send me an example "vuemrc" configuration file?
Thanks for any info!
Richard Hesketh
Computing Lab., University of Kent at Canterbury,
Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NF, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 227 764000 ext 7620/7590 Fax: +44 227 762811bcripe@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Brian E. Cripe) (05/31/91)
> I was recently given a photocopy of an article in the January 91 issue of > the Hewlett-Packard Journal by Mark A. Champine entitled "A Visual User > Interface for the HP-UX and Domain Operating Systems". This article > describes the HP Visual User Environment. Can anyone give me more details > about this product? .. Be careful when talking about HP VUE. The majority of the 1/91 Journal article describes HP VUE 1.0 which is only available on Apollo systems. It is a graphical environment that was started by Apollo before HP acquired them. The Journal article also has a sidebar on HP VUE 2.0 which is available on systems running HP-UX. HP VUE 2.0 is scheduled to replace HP VUE 1.0 on Domain systems, but I don't know exactly how or when. > are there any more references to papers that I can get hold of? There is marketing literature, but I know of no other papers. I am giving a talk at Xhibition titled "Problems, Issues, and Potential Standards Barriers Confronting Desktop Applications". This talk is about generic issues, not VUE specifically -- though it draws heavily on my experience with VUE. > I am particularly interested in how the Style and Workspace managers work. These two components are part of HP VUE 2.0. The Style Manager allows the user to customize colors, background patterns, fonts, and system parameters such as mouse speed and bell volume. The Workspace Manager (vuewm) is an extension to mwm that supports multiple workspaces (a.k.a. rooms). Besides multiple workspaces, vuewm also supports something called the "Front Panel". [The VUE documentation refers to the Front Panel as the "Workspace Manager" because it is the only visible manifestation of vuewm. I personally believes this confuses the issue.] The Front Panel is a panel at the bottom of the screen containing things like a clock, buttons to invoke applications, a printer and trash can that accept dropped files, etc. The Front Panel is highly customizable through the vuewmrc configuration file (for somebody determined enough to master the syntax). Other components of HP VUE 2.0 are the Login Manager which provides a graphical login screen (and handles X terminals), the File Manager which provides iconic file manipulation and application launching, the Session Manager which saves and restores sessions across logout, and the Help Manager which is a help system used by all of the VUE components. > The Style manager appears to perform some basic tailoring functions to > the user's general environment, e.g. changing background colours and > fonts. Does it also allow interactive modification of individual > applications? The Style Manager does not support arbitrary customization of applications. However HP's version of Motif 1.1 includes support for allowing the Style Manager to dynamically control colors. Therefore if you have an application built on HP Motif 1.1 and the application does not directly control its own colors, then the Style Manager will be able to dynamically change the colors of the applications. The Style Manager controls fonts by setting resources such as "*FontList" and "*SystemFont". If an application does not set its own fonts, then that application will pick up the fonts specified by the Style Manager. > It appears to use the HP SoftBench to send messages > between applications .. can anyone give me references to this software > system? HP VUE 2.0 is built on the Broadcast Message Server which was originally used with SoftBench. However VUE does not rely on SoftBench in any fashion, the VUE distribution includes all of the infrastructure components that it needs. There is a good introduction to the BMS in the SoftBench articles in the June 1990 issue of the HP Journal. > Technical details would be best (like "it uses X properties to send > messages) but glossy brochure style description would also be very > useful. A quick description is that the BMS is a message-routing server built on sockets, not on X mechanisms. Clients contact the BMS and specify what messages they are interested in receiving. All tools then send all messages to the BMS which forwards them to any interested clients. > I hope to be visiting HP LABS in Bristol (UK) soon .. can anyone > give some suggestions of what ask to look at in relation to HP VUE and > other UI developments? HP Bristol is a long ways from here (Corvallis, OR). I hope they can at least show you VUE running, but I don't know how much they know about it. > Can someone also send me an example "vuemrc" configuration file? Will do. Brian Cripe Hewlett-Packard