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Item 6854754 94/08/31 12:10
From: DARREN_SMITH@NEXT.COM@INET# Internet Gateway
Subject: Announcing InterfaceViewer Beta
Cc: news_from_next_ext@NeXT.COM
NEW DEVELOPMENT TOOL: InterfaceViewer
F. HEINZ consultora is proud to introduce a pre-release version
of InterfaceViewer, the user interface documentation, tool for
NEXTSTEP developers. The multi-architecture program may be
retrieved from by anonymous FTP from:
ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de, under the name
pub/comp/platforms/next/Developer/apps/InterfaceViewer.0.1.NI.b.tar
.gz and from other NEXTSTEP archive sites.
This fully functional pre-release version will stop working on
September 15th. By then, the final commercial release and a new
demo with the full feature set will be available from the same
sources.
What does InterfaceViewer do?
InterfaceViewer solves a problem common to all NEXTSTEP
development: documenting the contents of InterfaceBuilder
documents (the ubiquitous nib files). While IB offers great
tools for creating user interfaces, its capabilities are very
limited when it comes to finding out the inner workings of an
existing nib file, or documenting the contents of such a file
along with the rest of the source code for a project.
IV is useful when you want to use one of NeXT's great
mini-examples to find out something about the AppKit: the
source code is usually easy to follow and profusely documented,
but you still have to painfully untangle the connections inside
the nib files one by one before you understand what the program
does.
It is also a boon when you get someone new in your team, and
she has to catch up with what the rest of the group has done so
far. She can just take the nib files to IV and play with the
connections until she knows what's in there.
It is most useful at achieving other minor feats such as creating
high-quality EPS representations of you UI elements for inclusion
in you user documentation or at making poster- or blackboard-sized
documents for showing during team work. And InterfaceViewer is the
only way to completely document the working of your system (unless
you enjoy doing diagrams of the user interface by hand... :-).
How does it do it?
To discover the contents of a nib file, just open the file with
InterfaceViewer. What you get is a canvas with a diagram of all
objects and all connections of the nib file on it. You get to see
it all at once, everything is neatly laid out and clearly labeled.
And it works with any nib file at all, even those that contain
custom objects loaded from IB palettes---all you have to do is
load the palette into InterfaceViewer too, and it just works!
And what can I do with such a drawing?
While you work on the screen, InterfaceViewer does a lot to help
you read the diagram it created: you can selectively disable the
display of connectors according to criteria such as ``I want to
see only connectors of class DBTableConnector or IBOutletConector
that depart from the currently selected objects''. You can change
the graphics attributes of the connectors, change the arrangement
of the objects, resize the canvas, get the diagram just as you
like it. And while you are at it, let the auto-router lay out the
connections for you, so you don't have to position each segment on
the page yourself.
And you can print the diagram to post on the wall or in your
documentation records, too. InterfaceViewer will break the canvas
into pages according to the page layout and scale. Or you can save
the image for later reference, either in InterfaceViewer's own
format, or as an EPS image or in Diagram!2 format.
You can also cut and paste parts of InterfaceViewer's diagram into
other documents for your documentation records, or to get
high-quality PostScript images of your windows for inclusion in
you manuals.
About F. HEINZ Consultora
F. HEINZ Consutora is a privately-held network consulting and
software development company located in Cordoba, Argentina. We
are committed to the production of high-quality solutions for
NEXTSTEP users and developers, and to the development and
deployment of NEXTSTEP-based customer solutions. Our product
line currently includes Dots, the printer driver for non-
PostScript printers under NEXTSTEP, and InterfaceViewer, the user
interface documentation program for NEXTSTEP developers.
FOR MORE INFORMATION contact us at our development labs in
F. HEINZ Consultora
Benigno Acosta 4528
5009 V. Centenario
Cordoba, Argentina
Tel+Fax: (+54 51) 81 75 97
E-Mail: info@heinz.com
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