Lecture 7 Software Organization LexicalSyntax Semantics Seeheim Model

Lecture 7: Software Organization: Lexical-Syntax. Semantics, Seeheim Model, MVC, Object-Oriented Programming for UIs Brad Myers 05 -830 Advanced User Interface Software 1

Software Organizations n n Ways to organize code, rather than tools. "Models" Helps think about modularization and organization. Goal: separation of UI and rest of software = “semantics” 2

Conceptual-Semantic-Syntactic. Lexical-Pragmatic n n n Derived from compiler theory and language work. Mostly relevant to older, non-DM interfaces Pragmatic (as subdivided by Buxton) n n n How the physical input devices work required "gestures" to make the input. Ergonomics skilled performance: "muscle memory" press down and hold, vs. click-click 3

Conceptual-Semantic-Syntactic. Lexical-Pragmatic, cont. n Lexical (as subdivided by Buxton) n spelling and composition of tokens n n “add” vs. “append” vs. “^a” vs. Where items are placed on the display “Key-stroke” level analysis For input, is the design of the interaction techniques: n how mouse and keyboard combined into menu, button, string, pick, etc. 4

Conceptual-Semantic-Syntactic. Lexical-Pragmatic, cont. n Syntactic n n sequence of inputs and outputs. For input, the sequence may be represented as a grammar: n n n rules for combining tokens into a legal sentence For output, includes spatial and temporal factors Example: prefix vs. postfix 5

Conceptual-Semantic-Syntactic. Lexical-Pragmatic, cont. n Semantic n n functionality of the system; what can be expressed What information is needed for each operation on object What errors can occur Semantic vs. UI is key issue in UI tools n n but "semantic" is different than meaning in compilers "Semantic Feedback“ n n Depends on meaning of items Example: only appropriate items highlight during drag 6

Conceptual-Semantic-Syntactic. Lexical-Pragmatic, cont. n Conceptual (definition from Foley & Van Dam text, 1 st edition) n n key application concepts that must be understood by user User model 1. Objects and classes of objects 2. Relationships among them 3. Operations on them n Example: text editor n objects = characters, files, paragraphs n relationships = files contain paragraphs contain chars 7 n operations = insert, delete, etc.

Seeheim Model n n Resulted from the 1 st UI software tools workshop which took place in Seeheim, Germany. Nov 1 -3, 1983. Logical model of a UIMS n n UIMS = User Interface Management System (old name for user interface software) All UI software must support these components, but are they separated? How interface? 8

Seeheim Model n Presentation Component n n n Dialog Control n n n External presentation of the user interface Generates the images Receives physical input events Lexical parsing Parsing of tokens into syntax Must maintain state to deal with parsing; modes. Application Interface Model n n defines interface between UIMS and the rest of the software "Semantic feedback" for checking validity of inputs Not explicit in UIMSs; fuzzy concept. Roughly like today's call-backs. 9

Model-View-Controller n n n Invented in Smalltalk, about 1980 Idea: separate out presentation (View), user input handling (Controller) and "semantics" (Model) which does the work Fairly straightforward in principal, hard to carry through Never adequately explained (one article, hard to find) Goals n n program a new model, and then re-use existing views and controllers multiple, different kinds of views on same model 10

MVC 11

MVC n n Views closely associated with controllers. Each VC has one M; one M can have many VCs. n n VCs know about their model explicitly, but M doesn't know about views Changes in models broadcast to all "dependents" of a model using a standard protocol. 12

MVC n Model n n n Views n n n Simple as an integer for a counter; string for an editor Complex as a molecular simulator Everything graphical Layout, subviews, composites Controller n n Schedule interactions with other VCs A menu is a controller 13

MVC n Standard interaction cycle: n n n User operates input device, controller notifies model to change, model broadcasts change notification to its dependent views, views update the screen. Views can query the model Problems: n n n Views and controllers tightly coupled What is in each part? Complexities with views with parts, controllers with subcontrollers, models with sub-models. . . 14

Model-View n n n Since hard to separate view and controller Used by Andrew, Inter. Views Primary goal: support multiple views of same data. n n Simply switch views and see data differently Put into Model "part that needs to be saved to a file" n but really need to save parts of the view 15

Newer Models of Software Organization n “Arch” model n n n Bass, R. Faneuf, R. Little, N. Mayer, B. Pellegrino, S. Reed, R. Seacord, S. Sheppard, and M. Szczur, 1992. “A metamodel for the runtime architecture of an interactive system: the UIMS tool developers workshop”, ACM SIGCHI Bulletin. 24 (1), 32– 37. Jan, 1992 http: //doi. acm. org/10. 1145/142394. 142401 Adds abstract interface for the functional core Logical interaction layer: widget libraries and user interface toolkits such as Motif or MFC. 16

Newer Models of Software Organization n PAC-Amodeus n Nigay, L. and Coutaz, J. , 1991. Building User Interfaces: Organizing Software Agents. In: ESPRIT'91, Project Nr. 3066: AMODEUS (Assimilating Models of DEsigners, Users and Systems), pp. 707– 719. n n http: //citeseer. nj. nec. com/nigay 91 building. html, or http: //iihm. imag. fr/publs/1991/ Tries to integrate MVC with Arch Peter Tandler’s Beach model n For Ubi. Comp – covered later 17

Object-Oriented Techniques n Motivation n n Became popular along with GUIs, Direct Manipulation Icons, graphics seem like objects: n n have internal state, persistance OO was originally developed (Small. Talk) and became popular (C++) mostly due to GUIs. 18

Object Oriented n As a UI technique: n n n Same as GUI, Direct Manipulation = icons, graphical objects, widgets Here, as a programming paradigm (often in a language) A form of "data abstraction" "Classes" describe the basic structure of the data Also, the methods that can be called Usually no direct access to the data, only the methods 19

OO n Create "instances" of the classes n n "Inheritance": create a new class "like" the superclass n n n local copy of data may also be class data shares all methods by default has all the same methods and data can add new data and methods and re-program inherited methods Example: graphical_object. draw. . . circle. draw 20

OO n New style of programming; thinking about the problem n n Many books about how to do it right. OO design; getting the classes and protocols right n n n So subclasses don't have extra, wasted data space Methods make sense to all sub-classes So external classes don't need to know inside description. Also OO databases, etc. Implementation: n n object in memory, starts with pointer to table of methods, etc. lots of tricks and extra declarations in C++ etc. to avoid overhead of lookups ("virtual", "pure virtual") 21

Multiple inheritance n n n Class has multiple parent classes Combine all the methods and data of all Special rules for when conflict (same method, same name of data with different types, etc. ) Example: circle inherits from graphical-object and moveable-object Complex so often not used even when available Amulet uses constraints to provide flexible copying of values instead 22

Prototype-Instance model n n n Instead of the class-instance model All objects are instances Can use any object as a prototype for other objects n n n Inherits all slots it doesn't override (= instance variables, member variables, fields, attributes). Methods are just a value in a slot Dynamic changing of methods Easy to implement using structures. Usually, changing prototype data also changes all instances that do not override it. 23

Prototype-Instance model 24

Prototype-Instance model n n n May provide adding and removing of slots dynamically to any instance Simpler model, easy to implement But much less efficient n n Can't usually compile slot accesses into structure access; may need a search Type checking on slots Methods looked up at run-time Space for names of slots, extra pointers, etc. 25

Examples of OO Systems n OO in Small. Talk n n First "pure" example Everything is an object (numbers, strings, etc. ) Single inheritance Methods dispatched on a single parameter n n Dynamic method lookup at run-time n n n 3 + "4. 5" different from "4. 5" + 3 => "Message not understood" Strange syntax with special characters Whole environment (windows, browsers, MVC, etc. ) 26

Examples of OO Systems n OO in C++ n n n Numbers, strings, etc. not objects Lots of mess to make it fit with C Statically (compile-time) determine types, methods Originally a pre-processor (new syntax) Multiple-inheritance 27

Examples of OO Systems n OO in CLOS (Common-Lisp Object System) n n Add-on to language Special feature: method dispatch on all parameters +(int int) +(int str) +(str int) +(str str) Methods not as tightly coupled with objects 28

Examples of OO Systems n OO in Mac. App n n Because OO so natural for UIs, invented their own language: Object Pascal with help from Werth Used in Mac. App Small. Talk model, but more compile-time checkable Eventually abandoned in favor of C++ 29

Examples of OO Systems n OO in Andrew and Motif n n Invented their own object systems in C "Intrinsics" Mainly is a method and inheritance protocol Andrew: (ATK) pre-processor for header files n n n n Motif n n n single inheritance "_" = new syntax: class_method(xxx) dynamic loading of object implementations querying an object's class at run-time Andrew converted to C++ Now defunct just a set of conventions; no preprocessor not "real" inheritance, overriding Before C++ was popular, available 30

Examples of OO Systems n n n Amulet provides a prototype-instance object system embedded in C++ Java C# 31