Amoszine 5/Amoszine 5.adf/arts/IEreview.asc.cm/IEreview.asc.cm

Text File | 1992-02-26 | 7KB | 154 lines

@2
                    Interface Editor Review - Full Version
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@4
    For some reason, the AMOS Professional Interface language is the
    most under-used aspect of AMOS Pro, yet it is also the most
    powerful.  There also seems to be a lack of utilities to help the
    interface programmer.  So it's nice to receive a utility written
    especially with the interface in mind.  The idea behind this
    utility is to help you build up your user interfaces without
    programming it.  This is achieved by clicking on buttons and
    dragging boxes and it's simply a remarkable idea.  To create a
    requester all you need to do is click on the graphical box icon,
    drag out a box on the screen and assign it a value, which
    corresponds to the image in the resource bank.  Then, you'll need
    some text on the dialogue box.  Click the text icon, select a
    position on screen with the mouse and then type your text.  Next
    you'll need some buttons.  Click on the button icon, drag out a
    box on the screen and then you'll be presented with a requester.
    Here you set the attributes for the button such as whether it's
    a Quit button and so on.




    It's obvious the first time you look at this program that there
    is a tremendous amount of work gone into the making of it.  The
    actual program itself is an accessory which isn't compiled.  The
    source code is provided and totals at around 3000 lines, which
    is a huge amount of code.  The reason for supplying a source
    code version is that is meant to be run from AMOS Pro's menus,
    just like the standard accessories.

    The interface is quite a complex subject and takes a long while
    to understand fully, it comes as no surprise then that you must
    have a good understanding of the interface to use this program.
    I myself have a good understanding of the interface, but that
    didn't stop me from being confused over this program.  I found
    that the control panels were confusingly laid out, prefering
    to use icons (little pictures) instead of using plain simple
    english.  Although, you do get used to them after a while.
    Because of the sheer amount of gadgets on some of the control
    panels, some of them take a while to draw, especially some of the
    requesters.  Nothing can be done really to speed them up, except
    a faster computer, and programmers should be writing software for
    the new machines and not the old, the price of progress.  So I
    don't blame the author for this.  One thing I do blame the author
    for though is the lack of confirmation when you delete something.
@4    It is all too easy to delete some button you have created.  A
    requester should appear asking you to confirm your actions.

    A good feature that is present (that is missing from all Amos
    Pro's accesories) is on-line help.  This is a real bonus and
    helps no-end, especially as it's so easy to become confused.
    Each requester has a help button, which when pressed will give
    you help on that specific requester, nice idea.  Although the
    on-line help is very useful, the actual screen is very fiddly to
    use.  There's the usual slider bar but no arrow buttons so it is
    difficult to move up or down one line when the slider bar is
    either near the top or bottom.  Minor niggle though.  Although
    the help is generally very good there is no tutorial to get you
    started.  This is quite a major flaw, since you need all the help
    you can get.  In the interface language, you can draw lines and
    boxes using the elements in the resource bank.  The Interface
    Editor allows you to do this as well.  If you do not know which
    element to use, you can click on an icon to display the resource
    bank.  The screen that appears is quite messy, and the elements
    in the bank don't seem to be displayed properly, rendering this
    good idea useless.  Another problem that I found was to do with
    the buttons.  You can draw a button using the elements in the
    resource bank but you don't seem to be able to place text on them
    which is a must.  I tried everything and I couldn't find anything
    in the help file.  I may be missing something but then it's the
    job of the help to well, help.

    Im actually very impressed with the amount of work that has gone
    into producing this program, and the idea is fantastic but there
    is a very steep learning curve.  Some of the panels are confusing
    and really do need tidying up.  A tutorial should be included to
    help newcomers get started.  There are a lot of example
    interfaces on the disk and they really are quite impressive and
    show off the power of this program very well.  I presume this is
    the first version of this program, so these faults are to be
    expected.  With a little more work the program could become gold
    medal material, not that much work, just a little.  So if you're
    an interface programmer you would do very well to have a look at
    this program.









@3
                                   Summary
                                   ~~~~~~~@5
    DOCUMENTATION    : 6/10@4

        On-line help is included and this is a very welcome addition
        although some explanation is missing.  There is no tutorial
        to get you started.
@5
    USER-INTERFACE    : 6/10@4

        Some of the control panels are rather confusing and are slow
        to update.  It would be nice if the user interface used the
        colours from AmosPro to give everything a universal look.
@5
    EASE OF USE        : 7/10@4

        Creating a button is simply a matter of clicking and dragging
        but lack of instructions don't help.
@5
    SPEED            : 8/10@4

        The process of creating boxes, buttons and other gadgets is
        as fast as it can be but panel drawing is slow.@5
    RELIABILITY        : 6/10@4

        Some times the program crashes with a 'Bank not reserved'
        error.  The function to move a box you've created is quite
        buggy.  When an object is moved, it changes shape and looses
        all the dimensions you gave it.
@5
    FLEXIBILITY        : 9/10@4

        Remarkably flexible.  Any sort of interface can be created at
        a fraction of the time it takes to do normally.  The only
        thing that is not supported is user-defined functions, but
        this is only a minor flaw.
@5
    VALUE FOR MONEY : ????????@4

        Who knows????  Hopefully I'll find out in due course and I'll
        give you the information.
@5
    OVERALL            : 7/10@4

        An interesting idea although lack of tutorials diminishes a
        potentially brilliant product.  The overall rating may change
        when I find out how much it costs.
@6
    Released as : ?
    Price        : ?
    Author        : Richard Jones
    Address        : 14 Torrington Avenue
                  Weeping Cross
                  Stafford
                  ST17 OHZ