A Software Model and Specification Language for Non-WIMP User Interfaces

Abstract

We present a software model and language for describing and programming the fine-grained aspects of interaction in a non-WIMP user interface, such as a virtual environment. Our approach is based on our view that the essence of a non-WIMP dialogue is a set of continuous relationships-most of which are temporary. The model combines a data-flow or constraintlike component for the continuous relationships with an event-based component for discrete interactions, which can enable or disable individual continuous relationships. To demonstrate our approach, we present the PMIW user interface management system for non-WIMP interactions, a set of examples running under it, a visual editor for our user interface description language, and a discussion of our implementation and our restricted use of constraints for a performance-driven interactive situation. Our goal is to provide a model and language that captures the formal structure of non-WIMP interactions in the way that various previous techniques have captured command-based, textual, and event-based styles and to suggest that using it need not compromise real-time performance. © 1999, ACM. All rights reserved.