Report Number: CSL-TR-91-485
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: A Unidraw-Based User Interface Builder
Author: Vlissides, John M.
Author: Tang, Steven
Date: August 1991
Abstract: Ibuild is a user interface builder that lets a user manipulate simulations of toolkit objects rather than actual toolkit objects. Ibuild is built with Unidraw, a framework for building graphical editors that is part of the InterViews toolkit. Unidraw makes the simulation-based approach attractive. Simulating toolkit objects in Unidraw makes it easier to support editing facilities that are common in other kinds of graphical editors, and it keeps the builder insulated from a particular toolkit implementation. Ibuild supports direct manipulation analogs of InterViews' composition mechanisms, which simplify the specification of an interface's layout and resize semantics. Ibuild also leverages the C++ inheritance mechanism to decouple builder-generated code from the rest of the application. And while current user interface builders stop at the widget level, ibuild incorporates Unidraw abstractions to simplify the implementation of graphical editors.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/91/485/CSL-TR-91-485.pdf