Buttons as first class objects on an X desktop

Abstract

A high-level user interface toolkit, called XButtons, has been developed to support on-screen buttons as first class objects on an X window system desktop. With the toolkit, buttons can be built that connect user interactions with procedures specified as arbitrary Unix Shell scripts. As first class desktop objects, these buttons encapsulate appearance and behavior that is user tailorable. They are persistent objects and may store state relevant to the task they perform. They can also be mailed to other users electronically. In addition to being first class desktop objects, XButtons are gesturebased with multiple actions. They support other interaction styles, like the drag and drop metaphor, in addition to simple button click actions. They also may be concurrently shared among users, with changes reflected to all users of the shared buttons. This paper describes the goals of XButtons and the history of button development that led to XButtons. It also describes XButtons from the user's point of view. Finally, it discusses some implementation issues encountered in building XButtons on top of the X window system.