linton@marktwain.rad.sgi.com (Mark Linton) (06/19/91)
Below is a first set of frequently asked questions and answers about InterViews.
If you have any suggestions for improvements or additions, let me know.
I'll be updating and reposting this periodically.
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Q1: What is InterViews? (line 21)
Q2: What is Unidraw? (line 44)
Q3: What is the latest release of InterViews? (line 54)
Q4: How does one obtain the InterViews distribution? (line 62)
Q5: How much does InterViews cost? (line 73)
Q6: What is the state of the documentation on InterViews? (line 82)
Q7: Does InterViews support Motif or OpenLook? (line 96)
Q8: What platforms does InterViews run on? Unix? Mac? Windows? (line 106)
Q9: How portable is InterViews to other platforms? (line 119)
Q10: How is InterViews supported? (line 129)
Q11: What companies are using InterViews in commercial products? (line 141)
Q12: Is Silicon Graphics going to offer InterViews as a product? (line 157)
Q13: Is there an InterViews mailing list? (line 168)
Q14: What are the future plans for InterViews? (line 180)
Q15: Will new versions of InterViews be compatible with old ones? (line 192)
Q16: What is the schedule for future InterViews releases? 3.0? 3.1? (line 203)
Q17: Does InterViews have an interface builder? (line 212)
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Q1: What is InterViews?
A1: InterViews is a system for building and using interactive software.
Written in C++, InterViews provides a set of C++ class libraries
with high-level abstractions for implementing interactive programs.
InterViews includes specific support for resolution-independent
graphics, sophisticated document formatting, and graphical connectivity.
InterViews currently runs on top of the X window system.
Here is a summary of key InterViews features:
Native C++
Glyphs - lightweight, shareable objects
Sophisticated layout objects
Resolution-independent graphics
Printing
Overlays
Incremental update
Graphical editing framework
Apps: drawing editor, WYSIWYG document editor, interface builder
--------------------
Q2: What is Unidraw?
A2: Unidraw is a graphical editing framework that is part of InterViews.
The Unidraw class library includes support for 2D structured graphics,
graphical connectivity management, dataflow among components,
unlimited levels of undo/redo, direct manipulation primitives,
multiple views, and traversals for external representations.
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Q3: What is the latest release of InterViews?
A3: We are currently distributing version 2.6, which is quite stable, and
3.0-beta, which is becoming more stable. The 3.0 release will be
available in summer '91.
--------------------
Q4: How does one obtain the InterViews distribution?
A4: The distribution is available via anonymous ftp from
interviews.stanford.edu. Use login "ftp" and any password.
Make sure to use type "binary" and get "pub/3.0-beta.tar.Z".
This is a single compressed tar file with the source and documentation.
There is a README file in the top directory that explains
how to build and install it.
--------------------
Q5: How much does InterViews cost?
A5: There is no fee or license. InterViews is distributed in the
same manner as the MIT X Consortium distributes X. The software
is copyrighted, but you are given unrestricted rights in what you
can do with it (copy, modify, redistribute, sell, etc.).
--------------------
Q6: What is the state of the documentation on InterViews?
A6: The current documentation consists of a collection of manual pages,
roughly one per class, a reference manual describing the core classes
(new to 3.0), and several technical reports. We are working on a book,
but because InterViews has been a research project we have not focused
on broader documentation.
We also have been giving tutorials regularly at the MIT X Conference
(in January in Boston) and Xhibition (in June in San Jose). The
tutorial notes are available via anonymous ftp undef pub/papers.
--------------------
Q7: Does InterViews support Motif or OpenLook?
A7: The current distribution is not fully compliant with any standard GUI.
There will be a set of components that can support either
Motif or OpenLook in the future, but at this time we cannot
estimate exactly when or how this will be available (it might be,
for example, part of a commercial version of InterViews).
--------------------
Q8: What platforms does InterViews run on? Unix? Mac? Windows?
A8: Right now, InterViews runs on any X Unix platform. This includes
Silicon Graphics, DEC, HP, Sun, and IBM workstations. I'm not aware
of any Unix platforms that InterViews does not run on.
Others have investigated porting InterViews to non-X environments.
A group in Apple has done a Mac port, but this is not available.
A group at Texas Instruments has done a OS/2-PM port, for more
information contact Dan Stenger, stenger@csc.ti.com.
--------------------
Q9: How portable is InterViews to other platforms?
A9: There are two aspects to porting InterViews: the C++ environment and
the target window/operating system. The major headache across
C++ environments is system header files and ANSI/POSIX prototypes.
The window system dependent is isolated in a separate directory
in the InterViews source.
--------------------
Q10: How is InterViews supported?
A10: InterViews is a research project with participation from both
Stanford and Silicon Graphics. We (the researchers) fix bugs,
generate new releases, write minimal documentation, give tutorials, and
try to answer questions as best we can. Quest Systems,
a small company in Santa Clara, now offers support for InterViews
(their product is called ObjectViews). Other companies
are considering to offer a product based on InterViews.
--------------------
Q11: What companies are using InterViews in commercial products?
A11: We don't keep track of all the uses, but here are some of them:
Fujitsu America (telecommunications)
NASA/Century Computing (TAE+ interactive design tools)
ProCASE (CASE tools)
Teknekron Communication Systems (telecommunications)
Canon Information Systems Research Australia
Cisco Systems (network management)
Many other companies are using InterViews for prototyping,
advanced development, and research projects.
--------------------
Q12: Is Silicon Graphics going to offer InterViews as a product?
A12: There is no committment at this time. Silicon Graphics is continuing
to support InterViews as a research project and as a working project
within the MIT X Consortium. Silicon Graphics has a strong interest
in a next generation, C++ toolkit that is a widely-available standard.
There are no plans to change the policy of making InterViews
freely available like X (unrestricted rights).
--------------------
Q13: Is there an InterViews mailing list?
A13: Yes, though we now have a netnews group "comp.windows.interviews"
that we would prefer people to use. The mailing list is
dual-ported with the newsgroup; the alias is
"interviews@interviews.stanford.edu".
Please send mailing list drop/add requests to interviews-requests.
Please send bug reports to interviews-bugs.
--------------------
Q14: What are the future plans for InterViews?
A14: Briefly, the next technical push is to make high-level
document components so that the functionality of doc (the document editor)
is available to all applications. We also want to apply
the composition ideas we have used for geometry to the time
domain, making it easy to mix audio, video, and animation objects.
Strategically, we will continue to lead the X Consortium XC++
working group to try to define a standard C++ binding for X.
--------------------
Q15: Will new versions of InterViews be compatible with old ones?
A15: Our philosophy is not to break something unless we have to.
We will try to keep new versions compatible with old ones.
The only exceptions occur when preserving compatibility
makes the systems much more complicated and likely to be more buggy.
In the past, the only time this happened was going from 2.6 to 3.0
where certain features (such as TimerEvents) were better removed.
--------------------
Q16: What is the schedule for future InterViews releases? 3.0? 3.1?
A16: We expect 3.0 to be available in summer of '91. The main emphasis
for 3.1 will be to integrate the Unidraw and glyph work, especially
so that the interface builder (ibuild) can work with glyphs.
Our best guess for 3.1 is the late '91.
--------------------
Q17: Does InterViews have an interface builder?
A17: Yes, it is called ibuild. Because of the concurrent development
of ibuild and glyphs in 3.0, ibuild currently only generates code
that uses interactors (not glyphs). Generation of glyph code
will be added in the future.