Programming for events

ABSTRACT

Modern windowing user interfaces offer both a challenge and an opportunity to the APL programmer. This paper discusses some of the factors that need to be taken into account when designing APL applications in a windowing environment. In such an environment the application programmer needs to design the application to react to events which occur in the environment rather than design the application to take over the environment, especially when a number of independent applications are being run simultaneously. Some of the typical techniques required to produce a windowing application are discussed and applications examples are quoted using APL.68000 on the Apple Mac.

REFERENCES

• 1: IBM Systems Application Architecture, Common User Access - Advanced Interface Design Guide. SC26-4582-0
• 2: Apple Computer Inc., Human Interface Guidlines. Addison Wesley 1987
• 3: MicroAPL Ltd., APL.68000 for the Apple Macintosh. MicroAPL Ltd 1988
• 4: MicroAPL Ltd., APL.68000 for the Commodore Amiga. MicroAPL Ltd 1989
• 5: R.P.Nabavi, APL through Mac windows. Vector (the journal of the British APL Association) Vol 5 No 1 July 1988
• 6: R.P.Nabavi, A Better Mouse Trap. APLication conference proceedings. British APL Association 1988
• 7: Adrian Smith, APL: A Design Handbook for Commercial Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1982
• 8: R. Nabavi, APL windowing systems - where next?, Conference proceedings on APL as a tool of thought, p.278-284, July 1989, New York City, New York, United States

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Windowing systems

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: APL

General Terms:
Design, Languages