Thinking about a better UI

Les Tyrrell tyrrell at canis.uiuc.edu
Wed Apr 14 19:00:17 UTC 1999


> >I'm working on something that I think is very similar to what
> >you are describing- check out:
> >
> >	http://www.canis.uiuc.edu/~tyrrell/Squeak/Personal/UI
> >
> >This is a series of screenshots from an early version of my system.
> 
> Les, have you played with MathMorphs?  Their default mode of operating has
> some real similarities to what you picture here.  You can create class
> objects (graphical) that you can double click on to get to methods.
> Objects just sort of "sit around" in space.  It's an interesting model.
> 
> Mark

Yes- in my system, I'm doing something along those lines, but rather
than expose the raw methods I expose an object's services.  Unary
messages are easy, but services requiring additional arguments require
a bit more support.  In my scheme you would request a service, which
would present itself within the user interface, and then you would
interact with that service by either specifying or dragging arguments
into the presentation of the service.  When it is ready, the service
can be activated to obtain its result.

This system currently lives in VisualWorks, but in a form that allows
me to use it within VisualWorks and within a version of Morphic that
we have ported into VisualWorks.  Both cases are supported through
a common framework in which the objects living in a "user semantic
model" describe how they can be viewed and what their services are.
These descriptions are then used by the particular user interface
to present and provide interaction for the user semantic model objects.
Thus, aside from these descriptions ( which are independent of a
particular user interface framework ) the user semantic objects
are not coupled into the user interface.

Hopefully this system will be working well enough that I'll be able
to release it for general use in the near future, but that could
still be quite a few months down the road.

les





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