Chiron-1: a software architecture for user interface development, maintenance, and run-time support

ABSTRACT

The Chiron-1 user interface system demonstrates key techniques that enable a strict separation of an application from its user interface. These techniques include separating the control-flow aspects of the application and user interface: they are concurrent and may contain many threads. Chiron also separates windowing and look-and-feel issues from dialogue and abstract presentation decisions via mechanisms employing a client-server architecture. To separate application code from user interface code, user interface agents called artists are attached to instances of application abstract data types (ADTs). Operations on ADTs within the application implicitly trigger user interface activities within the artists. Multiple artists can be attached to ADTs, providing multiple views and alternative forms of access and manipulation by either a single user or by multiple users. Each artist and the application run in separate threads of control. Artists maintain the user interface by making remote calls to an abstract depiction hierarchy in the Chiron server, insulting the user interface code from the specifics of particular windowing systems and toolkits. The Chiron server and clients execute in separate processes. The client-server architecture also supports multilingual systems: mechanisms are demonstrated that support clients written in programming languages other than that of the server while nevertheless supporting object-oriented server concepts. The system has been used in several universities and research and development projects. It is available by anonymous ftp.

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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: User interface management systems (UIMS)

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: User interfaces
      D.2.m Miscellaneous
          Subjects: Reusable software**

General Terms:
Design, Languages

Keywords:
artists, client-server, concurrency, event-based integration, user interface architectures