The design of a new program typically begins with face the user sees: the
user interface. By working out the user's interaction with the program early
in the process, we assure ourselves that we truly understand the problem
we will solve and have the best solution in hand. RapidApp makes short work
of designing a user interface, trying it out, generating a working prototype
and extending it into a useful application. With its support for user-written
components, it makes it possible for the UI designer to work with a broad
array of building blocks. And its use of ViewKit as an application framework
means that it produces code that's smaller, easier to understand and easier
to maintain than comparable solutions.
Users want their programs to have flexible, easy to understand graphical interfaces. Building such user-friendly programs is complex and time-consuming, with little opportunity to reuse the work from one project on the next one. Developers spend time designing an interface and then spend even more time tying the interface into the underlying application code. Making a change to an interface can often require redoing the adjunct code. And even after building the UI and code, the programmer tools often aren't integrated into an easy to use environment.
RapidApp appeals to two kinds of developers: those who need to write graphical applications using Motif but who have not yet acquired the vast expertise required to use Motif's complex programmer interface; and those who have learned Motif but would prefer to use something faster, easier and more flexible that produces more understandable and maintainable code.
* the fastest way to create media-rich applications
* interactive tool for creating Motif user interfaces
* integrated with ViewKit and Open Inventor C++ libraries
* a two-way tool that lets you design your UI, write code, change the UI,
code, ...
Silicon Graphics' RapidApp is your way to break through to a quicker, cleaner development process. RapidApp is an interactive tool for creating applications and user interfaces. But rather than merely providing the UI shell code, RapidApp supports the creation and use of components to provide more functionality and a faster development cycle.
Going beyond the requirements of the current generation of applications, RapidApp provides access to the components of the emerging class of media-rich applications that make use of audio, video, and 3D graphics. In addition to offering UI widgets, RapidApp also provides access to such object-oriented frameworks as Open Inventor and IRIS ViewKit.
ViewKit is Silicon Graphics' C++ class framework that makes application development easier. It provides a collection of high-level user interface components and other support facilities that are common to every application, including windows, menus, and dialogs. All user interface components in ViewKit are C++ classes, which provides a well-structured object framework for OSF/Motif. Code written in ViewKit is dramatically smaller and easier to understand and maintain than its Motif equivalent. In addition, the ViewKit architecture encourages you to develop self-contained objects that you can re-use in multiple applications.
Open Inventor is an object-oriented 3D library offering a comprehensive solution to interactive graphics programming problems. Open Inventor simplifies graphics programming dramatically by presenting a programming model based on 3D objects. Programmers manipulate objects like cubes, polygons, 2D and 3D text, materials and textures, cameras, light sources, trackballs, handle boxes, 3D viewers and editors.
RapidApp supports an object-oriented architecture, defined by the ViewKit class library. In ViewKit, everything is a component. A component may be build from a single widget or from a collection of widgets. Components manage the layout of their underlying widgets as well as their behavior. To create a ViewKit component, encapsulate that collection of widgets in a C++ class, then add code to the class to implement the functionality of a spreadsheet. Once you have a spreadsheet component, it can be used anywhere you would like a spreadsheet.
RapidApp encourages the creation of components that are built from other components. Such components can be shared between developers, thus providing a common interface for your software projects and saving time.
RapidApp generates clean, well organized C++ code. When used with the ProDev WorkShop Debugger, RapidApp automatically sets up breakpoints for not-yet-implemented functions. Rather than searching your code, just run your application under the debugger. Click on a pushbutton, and the debugger will stop in the correct spot to add code to implement the button. Click on a menu item and you're instantly ready to code it. And with the Debugger's Fix & Continue feature, you can skip long compilations, relinks and reloads. Just parse the function from the Debugger and see the results right away.
Success Stories: Mediascape.
Copyright © 1996 Silicon Graphics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.