UIM/X Developer's Conference

October 14-15, 1993


Day 1 - October 14th - Conference Room A
8:30-9:30
UIM/X V2.5 Enhancements, Overview - Michael Foody, Visual Edge

This presentation will cover the features and enhancements added to UIM/X V2.5 as compared to UIM/X.

9:45-10:45
Building GUI Components - Working in a C++ Environment - Dipti Suthar, Bluestone

Object Oriented Design (OOD) methodology and C++ - The presentation will commence with a brief introduction to OOD paradigm and its salient features (data abstraction, inheritance, polymorphism, etc.). C++ language support to these features will also be highlighted. The objective of this section is to give the necessary background for non C++ developers in the audience.

Object Oriented GUI design - This section will address the benefits of applying Object Oriented Design methodology to GUI design. Design of reusable User Interface (UI) components, composition of UI components in C versus C++, are some of the topics to be addressed.

Object Oriented GUI - UIM/X Support - This section will cover the UIM/X features that enable Object Oriented GUI design. Each of the OOD features presented in section one will be discussed in detail with examples. The benefits of implementing reusable UI components in C++ versus C will be illustrated.

11:00-12:00
COSE Update - Paul Beiser, Hewlett Packard

COSE Update - Update of current COSE status; HP's involvement and plans especially as it applies to the CDE (Common Desktop Environment). What are the features of the CDE? What existing technologies are incorporated? And what are the benefits of the CDE.

Integrating UIM/X with SoftBench - Dave Wright, Hewlett Packard

Integrating UIM/X with SoftBench - Detail current level of integration between SoftBench and UIM/X (access to SoftBench, version control, build capabilities, editor...) and the value of doing development with this integrated environment. Outline ability to extend the integration. Outline ability to combine UIM/X and SoftBench Encapsulator functionality to encapsulate (integrate) applications into SoftBench.

12:45-1:30
Cross Platform Strategy - Eric Rubin, Visual Edge

UIM/X clearly dominates the UIMS (User Interface Management System) market for Motif developers -- reported to have captured as much as a 75% market share in this arena. With the introduction of our CORBA compliant Object Oriented Architecture and Cross-Platform GUI objects, we will leverage our recognized expertise in GUI building in to the expanding market of multi-platform interface development tools. This presentation compares 5 general approaches to cross-platform interface development, emphasizing the UIM/X Reusable GUI Object Class approach.

1:45-2:45
Cross Platform Programming Examples - Brad Fowlow, Visual Edge and Neil Perkins, Bluestone

This discussion explores techniques for cross-platform development in UIM/X. We begin with a review of the class-development tools in the builder, to show you can build interfaces entirely out of portable objects. Using the Cross-platform Developer's Kit as an example, we show how to decompose your interfaces into appropriate components, and how to approach porting components to other platforms. Detailed topics include handling different levels of geometry support, and how to deal with menu assembly.

3:00-4:00
Adding Help & Print to UIM/X - Prashant Mehta, Bluestone

When designing an application, the programmer should provide on-line help, and abilities to print a document. Here we will talk about two products that will satisfy both needs. The first product, Hyperhelp is a full-featured Window-style help system. Features include, context sensitive help, jump terms, pop-up definitions, browse sequence, keyboard searches, static and active graphics. The second product, Xprinter, enables the printing of graphics or scalable fonts to the postscript or PCL type printer. Finally, we will discuss the method in which these tools can best be integrated into UIM/X

4:15-5:15
Ask the Experts - Open Forum

User Feedback - Form Independent User's Group


Day 1 - October 14th - Conference Room B
8:30-9:30
Advanced Topics - Extending UIM/X - Chuck Patrick, Bluestone

As most seasoned X, Motif, and UIM/X developers will attest, most large GUI projects must eventually use custom widgets - those unavailable in the standard Motif Toolkit. It is imperative, therefore, that any 3rd party widget you might need integrate nicely with your UIMS. UIM/X is characteristically impressive when it comes to integrating such widgets. The presentation will explore various integration options for UIM/X, the concepts behind UIM/X's Customization Library, and the steps necessary to accomplish integration. Additionally, there will be a case study of three widgets that have been integrated already, the XRT/graph Widget from KL Group and the Matrix and Caption Widgets from Bellcore. Finally, there will be a discussion on how to incorporate many new widgets into a single development environment and the need for a "Builder Engine Deployment Standard".

9:45-10:45
Programming Motif V1.2 - Drag & Drop - David Booth, Bluestone

One of several new features added to Motif 1.2 was support for a standard Drag and Drop protocol. "Drag and Drop" allows the user to transfer a data object interactively from one application to another, as one form of inter-client communication (ICC). A visual icon of the object is "dragged" from the source application to the drop site using the mouse. During the drag, the mouse pointer changes dynamically to indicate the status of the operation. This session discusses the basic protocol required to use drag and drop in Motif 1.2, and presents a minimal, working example to demonstrate its use.

11:00-12:00
Rogue Wave Class Libraries - Dr. Thomas Keffer, Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave will be presenting a technical overview of their C++/Motif library, View.h++. Discussions will include a look into View.h++'s two-tiered architecture, including the "controller" classes, but with particular emphasis on the abstract "high-level" application classes. Included in this technical discussion will be code examples of View.h++ - displaying the ease of use and overall maintainability. The general advantages of using View.h++, as generated by UIM/X, will also be highlighted.

12:45-1:30
Cross Platform Strategy - Eric Rubin, Visual Edge

UIM/X clearly dominates the UIMS (User Interface Management System) market for Motif developers -- reported to have captured as much as 75% market share in this arena. With the introduction of our CORBA compliant Object Oriented Architecture and Cross-Platform GUI objects, we will leverage our recognized expertise in GUI building in to the expanding market of multi-platform interface development tools. This presentation compares 5 general approaches to cross-platform interface development, emphasizing the UIM/x Reusable GUI Object Class approach.

1:45-2:45
ADA Integration with UIM/X - Charles White, Black & White

UIM/Ada - Customizing UIM/X for Ada Code Generation - The UIM/Ada product was developed by Black & White Software based on the GUI development tool UIM/X from Visual Edge Software. It contains those features of UIM/X which are important to Ada developers, has eliminated features which are not useful to Ada developers and has some additional features required for Ada code generation. This presentation covers the major design considerations taken in developing the UIM/Ada and how the architecture of UIM/X supported the implementation of those features.

The major changes to UIM/X required to create UIM/Ada were to eliminate the ability to write C code in UIM/Ada and to modify the code generation to product code which could be translated to Ada. The open architecture of UIM/X gives developers access to all the interfaces in UIM/X. Interfaces can be eliminated, modified, or completely replaced. This feature was used to replace the Callback Editor and to remove several other editors in UIM/X, including the Declarations and Methods Editors. Code generation can also be modified in UIM/X. In the case of UIM/Ada, the generation of C code was eliminated, UIM/Ada was made to generate only UIL and Ada code. Due to the nature of the Ada code generator, which is a separate tool, additional modifications to both the UIM/X executable and to the shell scripts used to generate code were also made.

3:00-4:00
Advanced UIM/X Topics - Corporate Style Guide - Dan Morrow, Bluestone

A GUI standard provides guideline for the appearance and behavior of applications in a GUI environment. Applications that comply with a GUI standard are easier to use.

MOTIF has its own standards. They come in the form of Widget implementations and the MOTIF style guide document. While these enforce and dictate some rules, many gray areas remain in order to allow enough flexibility to satisfy all developers. It is often advantageous to add another level of standards. The term Corporate Style Guide has been coined for this level of specification. A Corporate Style Guide attempts to limit the gray areas by removing flexibility where it is not needed within the `Corporation'. A typical Corporate Style Guide would be a published document containing prescribed conventions.

UIM/X allows these conventions to be enforced in the development environment. The UIM/X executable can be enhanced and restrained such that the developer working within UIM/X has the power to create `Corporate' interfaces but cannot go beyond the standards. The end result is much more consistent interfaces. A major advantage in using UIM/X for enforcement is that it is typically done by supplying the developers with building blocks and simplified tools. This methodology decreases development time by replacing redundance with reusability.

This seminar will introduce the theory behind the UIM/X approach to the Corporate Style Guide. It will also display how various UIM/X features, powerful in their own rights, can be combined to attain the desired standards enforcement.

Key points will include:

Presentation will consist of slides, demos and question and answer session.

4:15-5:15
Ask the Experts - Open Forum

User Feedback - Form Independent User's Group


Day 2 - October 15th - Conference Room A
8:30-9:30
Display Postscript Developer's Toolkit - Michael Foody, Visual Edge

This presentation will be an overview of the features and benefits of the new Display PostScript software developer's toolkit by Visual Edge. The Display PostScript SDK is a full suite of software libraries, widgets, fonts, sample programs, and documentation that enables developers to quickly and easily create Motif-based "Live Document" applications-a new generation of applications that, until today, have not been practical to build with X, Motif and related tools.

9:45-10:45
Object Oriented Testing of Cross-Platform GUI-based Applications - Moshe Egert, Mercury Interactive

The power of GUI builders such as UIM/X, coupled with mandates for cross-platform development by corporate MIS departments, has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of versions and ports of GUI-based applications. This increased flexibility for GUI developers has dramatically increased workload and complexity for Quality Assurance (QA) departments as they have to perform a full test cycle for every new version or port.

Mercury's XRunner (for X-Windows) and WinRunner (for MS Windows) products automate the testing of GUI-based applications. Integrating UIM/X and Mercury's automated software testing tools can ensure that high-productivity application design does not come at the expense of testability and software quality. This integration brings simplicity and power to software design and testing, from development, through maintenance, to porting.

The presentation will focus on the various issues of test automation: Test methodology and test design, Test generation maintenance and porting, and Methods of verification and validation. the presentation will include real world user experiences and examples, plus a demonstration of the different stages in testing a GUI-based application.

11:00-12:00
UIM/X Builder Engine Business Strategies - John Spencer, Visual Edge

With the Builder Engine capability of UIM/X, Visual Edge offers a unique twist to the way software is typically licensed and implemented. Builder Engine allows developers to tailor UIM/X to deliver the appropriate functionality to different functions within your organization. Far more than just simply enabling customization...you not only can add new features to the system but more importantly you can permanently take some away. Builder Engine lets developers "build their own builder" and take advantage of lower pricing consistent with the level of functionality of the B.E. product. This presentation covers the definition of the B.E. strategy, the deployment approach in our two general markets, and the business case of buy vs. build.

12:45-1:30
UIM/X Future Directions - Michael Foody, Visual Edge

In this presentation, Visual Edge will discuss its plans and strategies or next generation as well as new technologies. Topics covered will be cross platform development, migrating to C++, as well as tailoring products for new market niches.

1:45-2:45
Downsizing in Style - Migrating an MVS DB2 COBOL Application to AIX - Lorna Conas, IBM

Using WorkBench, AIC, CMVC and other AIX Case Tools - This presentation describes a recent effort to migrate an MVS DB2 COBOL application to AIX where it would make use of IBM's new DB2/6000. The purpose of the project was to illustrate how application developers can take advantage of IBM's Software Development Environment (SDE) WorkBench/6000 and SDE-integrated CASE tools in downsizing a very typical legacy application. Among the SDE-integrated tools employed were IBM's implementation of UIM/X, AIX Interface Composer/6000 (AIC), and Configuration Management Version Control/6000 (CMVC). The effort looked at the applicability of the environment and tools across three language: C, C++ and COBOL. The project was divided into three parts: a minimal port of the existing COBOL, a modernization of the user interface and a re-implementation in C++.

The first step taken was to do a minimal migration, replacing the Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) panels with a Graphical User Interface which closely mimicked the IBM 3270 user interface. Using AIC 1.1, the GUI was generated in C source code, and linked with COBOL subroutines extracted from the original application and a C language main routine. The next step was to modernize this interface and make it conform to CUA guidelines. Finally, both the modernized GUI and the COBOL were replaced with C++ implementations. The C++ GUI was generated using AIC/6000 1.2. (UIM/X 2.5) and the COBOL was rewritten, making use of the C language call level interface (CLI) to DB2/6000.

The effort, results and sample code will be documented in the series of technical monographs published by IBM International Technical Support Organization, known as "IBM Redbooks".

3:00-4:00
Ask the Experts - Open Forum

Day 2 - October 15th - Conference Room B
8:30-9:30
Database Development with UIM/X - Scott Pennell, Bluestone

Bluestone, Inc. has developed a powerful software development environment for building OSF/Motif graphical client/server applications for relational database management systems (RDBMS). The new UNIX-based database tool, db-UIM/X, incorporates the core technology of industry leader UIM/X by using the Builder Engine technology of UIM/X. db-UIM/X allows the user to graphically bind User Interface Objects to database objects. We will discuss the design concepts, the use of the Builder Engine to develop db-UIM/X and the key features of the product.

9:45-10:45
Developing Distributed CORBA Applications with UIM/X - Ron Garton, Bluestone

This session will explore a myriad of issues that a developer confronts when attempting to design industry compliant X/Motif applications using db-UIM/X. A technical overview of the specific architecture deployed in db-UIM/X will be presented in conjuction with CORBA happenings, X Open updates and future directions for db-UIM/X.

11:00-12:00
UIM/X Builder Engine Technical Overview - Mark Nigro, Bluestone

The UIM/X Builder Engine provides the base functionality of a GUI builder, managing and integrating the surrounding tools and capabilities. This presentation will show how to customize and extend UIM/X to meet specific GUI builder requirements.

12:45-1:30
UIM/X Future Directions - Michael Foody, Visual Edge

In this presentation, Visual Edge will discuss its plans and strategies or next generation as well as new technologies. Topics covered will be cross platform development, migrating to C++, as well as tailoring products for new market niches.

1:45-2:45
Developing International Applications - Leigh Williamson, IBM

This presentation covers various details regarding how to add National Language Support (NLS) to your application. Subjects discussed include an overview of NLS programming terms, the value of NLS for your application, guidelines for GUI's in NLS programs, and a walkthrough of a sample program. The goal of this presentation is to provide basic understanding of the program requirements and impact of NLS for GUI applications developed using UIM/X.

3:00-4:00
Ask the Experts - Open Forum

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