craig@unicus.UUCP (Craig D. Hubley) (08/06/87)
Good to see real human interface stuff floating about again...
I am interested in finding a good user interface package for microcomputers,
preferably one that is available for several popular machines or compilers.
My immediate interest is to port a Macintosh package to the IBM PC, but
ultimately several microcomputers will be using what will hopefully be a
close-to-identical interface.
By "user interface package" I mean a set of C programmer's tools that make
it simple to write interfaces that employ common devices such as screen menus,
function key bindings, scrolling screen display regions (windows?), and the
like. It may also include the ability to interactively prototype these
facilities (that is, display and use them before writing C code) but this
is not essential. The objective is to design a functional, fairly visual
interface to an application, while keeping its interface consistent with
the MS-DOS environment/popular PC programs as well as the implementations
on other machines. Support for C++ would be VERY useful.
The package actually employed might be anything from a set of general screen
handling utilities to a full-blown windowing system. The final UI design will
not be set until the package is chosen, though its functional description is
already fairly solid.
The only package I know of that seems to meet these requirements is:
SKYLIGHTS and SKYLIGHTS/GX from Skylight Software
- Has anyone on the net actually used this package? Its very new.
Other alternatives include
MS Windows (I know very little about it - I've heard its slow and
can only `tile' rather than overlap windows, and is
not as standard or universally accepted as Microsoft thinks.)
GEM (I'm very wary of this since seeing the Atari ST -
is that how it's supposed to work? Is it a subset?)
I'm assuming that both of these provide developers' kits.
If you've used such a package, or are selling one, or WHATEVER, please
respond. I will literally consume glossy literature or specs or docs and
such until the choice must be made, this month, after which it will only
be of academic interest. If you can point me to any program that I can
see that were created with these packages, that would be very useful.
Please respond privately unless the material is of general interest
to cog-eng readers. I will summarize and post the results to this group if
there is enough of a response. I'll include my choice and the reasons.
Thanks in advance,
Craig Hubley, Unicus Corporation, Toronto, Ont.
craig@Unicus.COM (Internet)
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