Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!twg.com!david From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: NeXT & Interface Builders Message-ID: <8036@gollum.twg.com> Date: 8 Oct 90 00:48:21 GMT References: <22107@grebyn.com> <1990Sep28.055905.9056@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1990Sep30.214206.18776@utstat.uucp> <14897@cbmvax.commodore.com> Reply-To: david@twg.com (David S. Herron) Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 59 In article <14897@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: >>>...but I agree that the NeXT is looking good, now only if it had some >>>software...hmmm... > > At preset, if the NeXT >doesn't come with the software you need, you stand a high chance of >being in trouble if you're just expecting that application to be available >on the market. While the same can be said of any machine, NeXT right >now is on the bad end of the applications spectrum. You can go out and >buy an MS-DOS machine with reasonable certainty that if a program for a >particular problem exists, you can run it on that machine. NeXT has another Big Problem which will limit software for it -- it doesn't run X. X is a very powerful force in the market right now, especially on workstation-y like things. It may have some technical problems, and it may not be the "best way to do user interfaces" (whatever that means), but it's a very useful system -- especially since it runs across networks & all. Heck, X even beat out Sun with their Sun{tools,view} stuff that they've now adopted X and given it a place in the environment .. As for interface builders -- people have been talking here about how nice it would be to have something like NeXT's Interface Builder for the Amiga. I've lately been writing my first X programs and would love dearly to have an interface builder. They do exist, I just don't have one :-(. (woulda made that 20,000+ lines of code I wrote to drive my screens much easier -- or so I assume) In my searchings for one I've run across something from Carnegie-Mellon called Serpent. It is, right now, targeted at X based user interfaces but is interesting because -- it was designed to map to any input/output system. They mention it being used with an "experimental gesturing system", for instance. It can be glued to any graphical I/O system and the program to do this (generate the bindings) is called "Glue". -- The interfaces are driven from a scripting language which is very well suited to the purpose of some sort of user-interface making transactions into an application specific base of data. -- It includes an interface builder/editor which is, itself, a serpent application. Teach it about Intuition and it could become an Interface Builder for AmigaDOS. There's an announcement in comp.archives for a new alpha test version. -- <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <- <- Remember: On System V it's "tar xovf", not "tar xvf"!