NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/sys/sgi/13559

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-11 | 3.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!shrike!flash
From: [e-mail] (James W. Melton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: User Interface Builders: FAQ?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 12 Sep 92 04:38:38 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: "Lockheed Austin Division, 6800 Burleson Rd, Austin, TX 78744
Lines: 58

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (A C Aitchison) writes:
>I'm trying to write a GUI for my application.  Since GL doesn't have
>many widgets, and I'd rather spend my time on the application than
>learning and debugging Motif, can anyone recommend a user interface builder ?
>A GL based one would do, but since the future is OpenGL I'd prefer one that
>can generate mixed-mode now.
>
>Thanks,
>    Andrew Aitchison, [e-mail]


For the past several months I have been developing a large user
interface using Builder Xcessory from ICS ([e-mail]). I cannot
comment on your specific question about a GUI builder that will
generate mixed model code, but I think there is an underlying
assumption in your question that should be addressed.

The purpuse of a GUI builder is to put the visual display together
quickly and easily. It is much easier for me to click an icon of a
Bulletin Board and place an object on my screen than to write 40
lines of code to create that same widget in Motif C code. The GUI
builder automates the task of *creating* the widgets and organizing
their display.

However, in order to *manipulate* your widgets, you still have to
know (or learn) Motif. That is, you can easily create a scrolled
list using the GUI builder. But if you want to populate that list
at run time based on a query to your DBMS, you have to write the
Motif code to do so.

Operating in a GL world is going to be that much worse. Creating a
GL drawing area is relatively trivial; in fact, Builder Xcessory
can be extended to add any widget you like to its pallete of
widgets; I presume other GUI builders have similar features. But
there is no way to specify to a GUI builder *what* you want to draw
in that widget; you have to make the GL calls to do that.

I believe that there *are* programs that make libraries of graphic
operations available in iconic representation that you can
drag-and-drop to string together certain graphic transformations;
whether these programs are integrated with complete GUI builders is
beyond my knowledge. I don't even know what is out there. Any
takers?

The benefit of a GUI builder is that it allows you to rapidly put
together a prototype to evaluate look-and-feel. It increases your
productivity when it comes to actually creating the widgets in
code. But it does not shield you from having to delve into the
depths of Motif (or GL either, in your case).

Hope this helps.

----
--
Jim Melton, novice guru
email:      [e-mail] | "So far as we know, our
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