NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/os/linux/23395

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-09 | 19.4 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!charnel!rat!usc!sdd.hp.com!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!bradley.bradley.edu!brad
From: [e-mail] (Bradley E. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: SUIT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 9 Jan 93 21:52:14 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Bradley University
Lines: 565


=============================================================================
     SUIT -- The Simple User Interface Toolkit
=============================================================================


INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS SUIT?
===================================
Welcome to SUIT, Simple User Interface Toolkit.

SUIT is a library of interface tools developed at the University of
Virginia to help C programmers create sophisticated mouse based
interfaces without the lengthy learning period associated with
traditional user interface toolkits. Ease of learning and fast ramp up
time is central to SUIT's design. The SUIT tutorial is designed to
make the user productive in under two hours.

Also central to SUIT design is portability. SUIT programs currently
run without changes to the source code on the following platforms:
    o IBM PC
    o Macintosh
    o Sun3
    o Sun4 (SparcStation)
    o SGI (Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations)
    o DECstation
    o HP

This document is an overview of SUIT's capabilities; full
documentation is included with the SUIT distribution in the form of a
10 page tutorial and a comprehensive Reference Manual. Parts of this
overview were taken from the SUIT tutorial.

In this introduction you will:
    o Run a sample SUIT program
    o See how SUIT allows you to modify the appearance of the
         interface while the program is running
    o See how to ftp SUIT from the University of Virginia to
      your local site

Along with this document, you will need the files called:
    o demo
    o demo.sui


THE DEMO PROGRAM
============================

    To begin the demonstration, start the SUIT demonstration
program called demo; a so-called "do-nothing application" because
none of the widgets are connected to any program functionality.

    Demo contains just a few of the screen objects (or
"widgets") available to programmers from the SUIT library.  If you
need a specialized widget of your own, you can create one with the
programming calls that SUIT provides. Such "home grown" widgets can be
introduced into any SUIT program as easily as one from the standard
SUIT library.

    Try clicking on the "bounded value" widget found in the lower
left hand corner. This is a widget that allows the user to specify a
number between a minimum and maximum value.


    The Other Widgets in Demo:
    ----------------------------------
    o Bouncing balls (just for fun)
    o A label widget for displaying text
    o A bounded value widget.
    o A polygon widget (used mostly for demonstration
      purposes)
    o A menu widget
    o A set of radio buttons for mutually exclusive choices
    o A Text editor
     (The simple editing commands are customizable, but default
     to those used by the popular text editor, Emacs)
    o A scrollable list of text for selecting
     words/lines of text from a list.
    o An on/off switch
    o A type-in box for letting users specify strings
      (Also Emacs)
    o A set of color chips for selecting colors
    o a UVa Logo !
    o A set of buttons to exit the program.


    There are several other widgets, like dialog boxes and
    file selectors that are also part of the standard SUIT
    distribution, but are not shown in Demo.

    Try interacting with the various widgets in Demo.


MANIPULATING A SUIT INTERFACE
=====================================

    Moving Widgets
    --------------
    SUIT gives you the ability to move and resize widgets while
    the application is running.

    To move a SUIT widget:
    1.) Hold down both the SHIFT and CONTROL keys with one
     hand.
    2.) With the other hand, move the cursor near the center
     of the widget you'd like to move and press and hold down
     the leftmost mouse button. A dashed outline of the widget
     should appear and follow the cursor until you release the
     mouse button, at which point the widget will be placed at
     the new location and you can release the SHIFT and CONTROL keys.

    Try moving the bounded value widget.


    SHIFT and CONTROL: The SUIT-keys
    --------------------------------
    The SHIFT and CONTROL keys are used as a signal to SUIT that you wish
    to interact with the interface as the interface designer (letting you
    move and resize things), not as a user of the application (letting you
    move the needle on the bounded value up and down). Whenever
    you are holding down the SHIFT and CONTROL keys, you're
    "talking to SUIT" and whenever you are not,
    you're "talking to the application". In the rest of this overview, we
    will precede any operation which requires you to use the SHIFT and
    CONTROL keys with the prefix "SUIT-". For example, "SUIT-a" means
    "hold down the SHIFT and CONTROL keys and press the letter `a`on the
    keyboard". Similarly, "SUIT-click" means "hold down the SHIFT and
    CONTROL keys, and click on the left mouse button".


    Selecting Widgets
    -----------------
    SUIT provides several other means by which you can change the
    appearance of widgets in your interface. All of these, however,
    require you to first select the object you wish to change. To do this,
    SUIT-click on it.

    Try selecting the bounded value. When the bounded value is selected,
    "handles" appear around the edges.


    Deselecting Widgets
    -------------------
    An object may be deselected either by SUIT-clicking on it again, or by
    SUIT-clicking anywhere on the screen.

    Try deselecting the bounded value. The handles should go away.


    Resizing Widgets
    ----------------
    In addition to moving widgets, you can also resize them. To do this:
    1.) SUIT-click on the object you wish to resize
    2.) SUIT-drag one of the handles

    Practice resizing the bounded value. Try to make it taller and
    thinner. Now make it square.


    Cycling Widgets Among Display Styles
    ------------------------------------

    The bounded value you have been manipulating allows the user to specify a
    number from 1 to 10. There are any number of ways that a bounded value
    like this could be displayed. SUIT provides four built-in display
    styles: a simple slider, a pie-chart display, a scroll bar,
    and a speedometer-like display: To change a given widget from
    its current display style to another, you can cycle the
    widget.
    To do this:

    1.) Move the cursor to the center of the widget
    2.) Type SUIT-c

    Cycle to each of the five available display styles and click
    on them to see how they work.



THE SUIT PROPERTY EDITOR
================================

What if we wanted to change something about a widget other than its
location, such as its color? Each SUIT widget maintains information like this in
the form of a collection of variables or properties that govern the widget's
appearance and functionality. To view or change any of the properties that
a widget has, you can invoke the SUIT property editor. You will notice that
properties, like variables, come in different types; SUIT supports a wide
variety of types including double, string, boolean, and more advanced
types like color, font, and enumeration.

To become familiar with the property editor, try these steps:
    1.) Make sure you are still running demo.

    2.) Move the cursor to the center of the polygon widget. Type SUIT-e.

    3.) BOOLEANS: Click on the object property FILLED. It should change to
        NO. Notice that the polygon is not filled anymore.

    4.) TEXT: Click on the object property called NUMBER_OF_SIDES. A text
        box will appear. Type a CONTROL-k to delete the text currently in the
        textbox. (This means hold down the control key and press "k") Type
        in the number 3 and press RETURN. Notice that the
        polygon has 3 sides.

        Here are some other useful editing keys:
        o Delete character    CONTROL-d
        o Forward a character    CONTROL-f
        o Backward a character    CONTROL-b
        o Kill Line        CONTROL-k
        o Beginning of Line    CONTROL-a
        o End of Line        CONTROL-e

    5.) COLOR: If you have a color monitor, Click on the
        object property FOREGROUND_COLOR. Select a bright color from
        the choices offered and press OK. Notice
        that the color of the polygon has changed to the
        color selected on the color chips.

    6.) Exit the property editor by clicking on "OK."


    More About Properties
    ---------------------

    As you have seen, each screen object has various properties
    which store information about the object's appearance and
    functionality. If these properties were always stored with
    each object, it would be hard to enforce consistency. For
    example, if all the labels in an application were green, and
    you decided to make them all red, you would have to change
    them all one by one. SUIT addresses this problem by allowing
    properties to be stored at three different levels: the
    object level, the class level, and the global level.  These
    nested levels are shown below.

    To find a property, SUIT starts at the object level. If the
    property in question has not been defined at the object
    level, the search is performed again at that widget's class
    level. If the search fails here too, SUIT searches the
    global level, where if it is still not found, a default
    value for that type of property is returned.

    EXAMPLE: Suppose the code for a button widget called
    "Bert" initiates a property lookup on a property called
    FOREGROUND_COLOR. SUIT first looks to see if a
    FOREGROUND_COLOR property has been specified for Bert at the
    object level. If so, SUIT returns the value of the property.
    If not, SUIT looks to see if there is a FOREGROUND_COLOR
    property specified at the class level for all widgets that
    belong to the class called "buttons". If not, SUIT searches
    the global level for FOREGROUND_COLOR, at which point, if the
    property is still not found, the default value of black will
    be returned.


    Experimenting with Property Lookups
    -----------------------------------
    To get a better idea of how property lookup works, perform
    the following steps.

    1.) INVOKE THE PROPERTY EDITOR: Type SUIT-e over the label at the top
    of the screen that says "SUIT".

    Note that the label has no HAS_BORDER property at the object level. This
    means that the label is inheriting its HAS_BORDER from a higher level -- in
    this case, the class level. Change the class level HAS_BORDER
    property to YES by clicking on it.

    2.) EXIT THE PROPERTY EDITOR: Click on the OK button.

    All the labels now have borders because they are all getting their boolean
    HAS_BORDER property from the Class level. Suppose you wanted all but
    one of the labels to have a border? To do this, you have the single label
    override his class level property by giving him a property at the object
    level. We'll do this by copying the label's class property to
    the object level.

    3.) COPYING PROPERTIES: Invoke the property editor again on the same
    label. We are now going to copy a property from the Class level to the
    Object level. To do this: Press and hold the mouse button down (No
    need to use SUIT keys here) over the HAS_BORDER property listed
    under Class Properties and move your mouse until the cursor is over
    the Object Properties box. When you release the mouse button, the
    property will be copied from the Class level to the Object level.

    4.) Change the Object level HAS_BORDER property of this label back to
    NO. Exit the property editor again. Notice that this label is now differ
    ent from the others: it has no border because this label finds its
    HAS_BORDER property at the object level (where HAS_BORDER is NO),
    not the class level (where the value is YES).

    What if we wanted this label to revert to inheriting its HAS_BORDER from
    the Class? We need to delete the object level property to let
    this happen.

    5.) DELETING PROPERTIES: Invoke the property editor one last time on
    the label. Dispose of the object level HAS_BORDER property by drag
    ging the property from the object level listing to the trash can icon.
    Notice that the label has gone back to inheriting its HAS_BORDER
    property from its class.

    6.) EXIT PROPERTY EDITOR: Click on OK.



INTERACTIVE CREATION OF WIDGETS
=======================================
    SUIT is capable of adding widgets to an application on the
fly. In this next section, we are going to add a clock widget.

    To create a clock widget on the fly:
    1.) Invoke the "New Widget" command by typing
        "SUIT-n"
    3.) Select "clock" from the list of widget
        classes supplied
    4.) Press OK.

This same procedure can be used to add labels, buttons and other
widgets to an application without writing code. Adding functionality
to a widget can be done by writing code or by "exporting" a property...



EXPORTING PROPERTIES
==========================

    SUIT can attach program functionality interactively.

    Suppose you had a widget called "Ernie" and you wanted the
user to be able to control Ernie's foreground color through a set of
color chips some where in the application. Instead of adding a
SUIT_createColorChips() call to your code, writing the callback, and
recompiling the code, you could "export" Ernie's FOREGROUND COLOR to the
application's interface via the export button in the property editor.

    Exporting a property means having SUIT add another widget to
your application interface whose sole job is to control some property
of another widget. SUIT can do this because for every data type that
SUIT manipulates (integers, booleans, strings, etc.) there is a
corresponding widget that can represent that type (bounded values,
check boxes, type-in boxes, and respectively).

    To export the polygon's FILLED property:

    1.) If you're not still running demo, start up the demo program again.
    2.) Invoke the property editor (SUIT-e) on the polygon widget.
    3.) Drag the FILLED property from the object level listing to the export
    panel (looks like a moving van), in the same way you might drag a
    property to the trash can.  Select OK to exit the property editor.

Notice that there is now a new on/off switch in the application (this
is the kind of widget that controls boolean data types). Click on the
switch and the polygon will change from filled to unfilled and back
again.
    New functionality. No new code.



WHO CAN GET SUIT?
==============================
SUIT, including all its source code, is available without charge
to Universities and other non-profit institutions.  For-profit
organizations can send email to

    [e-mail]

to find out how they can help support graduate education in America.

WHAT DO I NEED AT MY SITE IN ORDER TO USE SUIT?
===================================================
    This all depends on the platform you will use:

    X WINDOWS:
        You will need at least X11R4 and gcc 2.1 or later.
        Or any ANSI-compatible C compiler.
        (If all you have is gcc 1.37.X, send us mail.)

    MAC:
        Think C 5.0

    DOS:
        DOS version 5.0 and Borland C++ version 3.1

    WINDOWS:
        Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Borland C++ version 3.1


HOW TO GET THE SUIT DISTRIBUTION
========================================
SUIT is available through anonymous ftp from
uvacs.cs.virginia.edu (128.143.8.29). Each SUIT distribution
package comes with full source code and documentation, though
as explained below, the source and docs are available separately
as well for those attempting to port SUIT to an architecture we do not
yet support. To set a standard SUIT distribution package for your
machine:


1.) On your system, make a directory that will hold the
distribution. For example, in your home directory type:

        mkdir suit

The process of installing the SUIT distribution causes SUIT to
create a new directory underneath the one you've created here.

2.) Change your current directory to this new location:

        cd suit

3.) Type the following command:

        ftp uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU

    (if this doesn't work, try ftp 128.143.8.100 or
                   ftp 128.143.60.100)

 You should see something that looks like:

        Connected to 128.143.8.100
        220 uvacs FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready.
        Name (128.143.8.100:CookieMonster):

    where "CookieMonster" is your login ID.


4.) At this prompt, type:

        anonymous

    You should see something like this:

        331 Guest login ok, send ident as password.
        Password:

5.) Please type in your local login ID as a courtesy. This will not be
echoed back to you, so don't panic.
    You will see:

        230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
        ftp>

6.) cd into the SUIT directory by typing:

        cd /pub/suit/distribution

7.) cd into the directory named after the hardware platform
    you intend to use:

    cd <machine_type>
    where <machine_type> is one of:

        sparc
        sun3
        sgi
        rs6000
    for example:
        cd sparc
            OR
        cd sun3
            ETC.

8.) VERY IMPORTANT: set the ftp transfer to use binary mode
    Type:
        binary

9.) transfer the archive
    Type:
        get <machine_type>.tar.Z

        for example:
            get sparc.tar.Z
                OR
            get sun3.tar.Z
                ETC.

    This file is VERY large. Expect it to take
    several minutes to come over.

10.) leave ftp
    Type:
        quit

11.) uncompress the archive
    Type:
    uncompress < <machine_type>.tar.Z | tar xfh -

    for example:
        uncompress < sparc.tar.Z | tar xfh -

12.) CONGRATULATIONS! You've got yourself the SUIT library and header
files! You can now safely remove the <machine_name>.tar file if you so
desire.

13.) Follow the directions in the top level README file to prepare
the SUIT distrbution for your site.


GETTING SUIT SOURCE
===========================
    Full source code comes with each distribution package of SUIT
    (same source for all architectures).

    IF YOU ONLY WANT THE SOURCE, you can ftp it from uvacs, as
    described above

        ftp uvacs.cs.virginia.edu
        (Be sure to use binary transfer)

    in the file called

        /pub/suit/distribution/JustSource/src.tar.Z



GETTING THE SUIT REFERENCE MANUAL
=========================================
    Each standard distribution package of SUIT comes with a
    complete reference manual which describes the SUIT library
    calls. In the standard distribution, the manual comes in
    the form of a VERY long    postscript file that prints out
    from last page to first.

    If it is more convenient for you to print the manual out from
    first page to last, or if you need just individual reference
    manual chapters, those are distributed as well in the file

        /pub/suit/distribution/JustDocs/doc.tar.Z

    which can ftp from uvacs as explained above. These files are
    called chap_01.ps, chap_02.ps, etc. The complete reference
    manual is in the file chap_all.ps.

    Again, be sure to use binary mode when getting this file.
    (type "binary" at the ftp prompt before typing "get")


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
========================

    Thanks for SUIT are due to its original author, Nathaniel Young, and
    to Roderic Collins, Matt Conway, Jim Defay, Pramod Dwivedi, Robert
    DeLine, Brandon Furlich, Rich Gossweiler, Chris Long, William
    McClennan, Kim Passarella, and Randy Pausch. This work was supported
    in part by the National Science Foundation, the United Cerebral Palsy
    Foundation, the Virginia Engineering Foundation, the Virginia Center
    for Innovative Technology, and SAIC.

    TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:
    We would like to hear from you: if you have
    any comments about SUIT, please send electronic mail to

        [e-mail]

    We are very interested in your comments as well as your reports of
    errors, unclear sections, or omissions you find in any part of SUIT.

    SUIT (c) 1990, 1991 , 1992
    Copyright Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

--
Bradley Smith             [e-mail] ---  309-677-2337
Network & Technical Services @ Bradley University, Peoria, IL

"It's amazing how much scrap metal you get from 4 cans of beer"