Transportable applications environment (TAE) plus experiences in “Object”-ively modernizing a user interface environment

  • Authors:

  • Martha R. Szczur;Philip Miller

  • Affiliations:

  • NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 521, Greenbelt, Maryland;Century Computing, Inc., 1100 West Street, Laurel, Maryland

  • Venue:
  • OOPSLA '88 Conference proceedings on Object-oriented programming systems, languages and applications
  • Year:
  • 1988

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Abstract

This paper describes the evolution of the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE) (developed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) from a traditional procedural menu and command-oriented system to an object-oriented, modeless user interface management system, known as TAE Plus. The impetus for developing this environment and early experiments which led to its current implementation are addressed. The current version of TAE Plus provides design and prototyping functions, working in tandem with a mature application management system. The main components are (1) a user interface designers' WorkBench that allows an application developer to interactively layout an application screen and define the static and/or dynamic areas of the screen; (2) an application programmer subroutine package that provides runtime services used to display and control WorkBench-designed “interaction objects” on the screen; and (3) an extension to the existing TAE command language that provides commands for displaying and manipulating interaction objects, thus providing a means to quickly prototype an application's user interface. During TAE Plus development, many design and implementation decisions were based on the state-of-the-art within graphics workstations, windowing systems and object-oriented programming languages, and this paper shares some of the problems and issues experienced during implementation. Some of the topics discussed include: lessons learned in using the Smalltalk™ language to prototype the initial WorkBench; why C++ was selected (over other languages) to build the WorkBench; and experiences in using X Window System™ and Stanford's InterViews object library. The paper concludes with open issues and a description of the next steps involved in implementing the “totally modern” TAE.