schneidr@cs.washington.edu (Scott Schneider) (06/01/90)
There appeared to be sufficient interest to summarize this to the net.
So, here goes.
I requested information from the net concerning the availability
of X-based User Interface Builders or Interactive Design Tools(IDT).
The following is my attempt at integrating the responses that I
received.
Disclaimer: by no means is this an attempt at providing an exhaustive
list of the IDTs that are available on the market. This is merely my
summary of what I have come across via evalutation and second-hand
information. Feel free to comment on any information contained in
this summary.
Thanks to all those that responded to my initial request.
dennis@peanuts.nosc.mil (Dennis Cottel)
sl11@prism.gatech.edu (LIEBESKIND,SUSAN H)
hashem@mars.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Basil Hashem)
davet@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Dave Thompson)
jimbo@hamlet.boeing.com (Jim Dehmlow)
ral@hydra.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Roger Lighty)
Bruce Thompson <brucet@ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca>
spence%snake.esd@sgi.com (Spencer Murray)
Joseph C. Pistritto jcp@brl.mil
bruce@bambam.ESL.COM (Bruce McKenzie)
bcsaic!chrise@beaver
ross@dino.ulowell.edu (Ross Miller)
Steve Albrecht <ALBRECHT@INTELLICORP.COM>
codex!dan@uunet.UU.NET (Dan Breslau)
tcipro!ramu@unix.sri.com (Ramu Iyer)
putnam@peanuts.nosc.mil (Mike Putnam)
kevin@Solbourne.COM (Kevin Pammett)
and any others I failed to mention.
Enjoy.
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o UIMX Visual Edge Software Limited
3870 Cote Vertu
St. Laureat, Quebec
Canada
H4R 1V4
(514) 332-6430
Available from HP who OEMs UIMX from Visual Edge.
Currently in Beta test but available "real soon now".
Built on top of Xt Intrinsics, support Motif or OpenLook.
$5,000 per workstation.
Generates C code.
Allows user to make custom widgets, full support.
C interpreter allows immediate testing of user interface, as
well as callback routines.
Can develop GUIs for existing applications.
Summary: the responses from the net appear to indicate that this
is one of the best IDTs on the market. Indication that
it is more powerful than the Interface Builder on the
NeXT machine.
Check it out!
o TeleUSE TeleSoft
5959 Cornerstone Court West
San Diego, Ca 92121-9891
(619) 457-2700
Available now.
Full support for Athena and Motif, written under Xt Intrinsics.
Consists of the following components:
1. VIP - Visual programming Interaction Primitive. An interactive
layout editor for graphically describing user interfaces.
WYSIWYG. Can create widgets such as buttons, menus, etc.
2. D - rule-based language in which the dialogue between
the user and the application is described. Referred
to as the dialogue control component. D-code gets
compiled into C code.
3. AIM - Application Interface Model. Specifies the interface
between the D code and the application program.
4. UI-builder - builds an executable user interface from the description
from each of the above parts. Creates a complete program
from the application code and the user interface code.
Separates the user interface from the application code.
Supports: DG Aviion, DECstation 2100 and 3100, Sony NEWS, Sun3, Sun4, and
possibly HP, Apollo and VAX/VMS.
Comments: I'm going to see a demo June 11 so I'll report back to the net.
o devGUIDE Sun Microsystems
Don't know much about it because I am interested in the Apollo platform.
I have seen a demo and it was quite impressive. It provides the user with
a palette of user interface objects, widgets, that can be integrated into a
new user interface. I believe it then generates the corresponding user
interface code.
Th-th-th-th-thats all on this one.
o TAE+ COSMIC
The University of Georgia
382 Broad St
Athens, Ga 30602
(404) 542-3265
Transportable Applications Environment (TAE).
Source code + one set of documentation - $500, add'l documentation - $100.
Here is part of the official blurb...
"TAEPLUS (Transportable Applications Environment) from NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center is an integrated, portable
environment for developing and running interactive window,
text and graphical object-based application systems. The program
allows both programmers and non-programmers to easily construct
their own custom application interface and to move that interface
and application to different machine environments. When used
company wide for a wide range of applications, TAE Plus makes both
the application and the machine environment transparent with
noticeable improvements in the learning curve.
TAEPLUS uses the MIT X-Windowing System as the underlying windowing
system standard. The workbench and Window programming Tools are written
in C++ and the remaining code is written in C. "
The licensed program product includes TAEPLUS source code and one set
of supporting documentation for $500. Extra doc is $100 per set.
Memory requirements recommended: 8MB. Disk space: 50 MB. Runs
on Apollos, HP 9000, Sun3 ,4 , Ultrix and Macintosh. VMS available
later.
TAE Plus generates C or Ada or Fortran code, which you then add
your own application specific code to.
Currently supports HP widgets but Motif is due in the Fall.
o Serpent Carnegie Mellon Univ/Software Engineering Institute
email: serpent-info@sei.cmu.edu
Available via anonymous ftp from fg.sei.cmu.edu (128.237.2.163) in
/pub/serpent or expo.lcs.mit.edu (18.30.0.212) in /contrib.
Supports Athena and Motif widget set.
Generates C or Ada code.
Consists of:
1. a language designed for spec of user interfaces.
2. a language to define the interface between the appl and Serpent.
3. a transaction processing library.
4. an interactive editor for specing dialogues and displays.
5. I/O technologies.
Appears to be an enthusiasic user community and very good support from SEI.
Comment: get it off the net, compile it and check it out.
o Builder Xcessory Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS)
163 Harvard St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 547-0510
email: info@ics.com
Official blurb...
"Simply select graphical objects (called "widgets") from the Palette and
use the mouse to position and size your interface objects. You can then
use the Resource Editor to customize the widgets you have selected and,
use "Play" mode, navigate a trial run through the interface you've
created."
Platforms: Sun3, Sun4, Mac II, DecStation 3100, VAX (Ultrix), Sony NEWS.
Runs on UNIX systems that support Version 11, R4 and R3 of the X Window
system.
Can generate C or a combination of C and Motif UIL.
o ExoCODE/AutoCODE Expert Object Corporation
7250 Cicero Ave.
Suite 201
Lincolnwood, Ill 60646
(312) 676-5555 (area code may be 708)
o WINTERP available via anonymous ftp
expo.lcs.mit.edu, contrib/winterp
An interpretive, interactive environment for rapid prototyping applications
using the OSF/Motif toolkit. Stands for "Widget INTERPreter". Uses XLISP
object system.
o XBuild Nixdorf Company (that's all I know; pretty helpful, huh)
o Open Dialogue HP/Apollo
A UIMS system that runs on the Apollo, and is portable to Suns, VAxen, and
HPs.
Separates user interface and application code.
Comes with a previewer that allows rapid prototying of user interfaces.
Plans are to add an IDT on top of Open Dialogue. Possibly by Q4 1990.
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Hope this was useful to someone.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Schneider | "Communication with an engineer is |
Boeing Commercial | only slightly more difficult than |
schneidr@june.cs.washington.edu | communication with the dead." |
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--
Scott Schneider | "Communication with an engineer is |
Boeing Commercial | only slightly more difficult than |
schneidr@june.cs.washington.edu | communication with the dead." |