Systematic Output Modification in a 2D User Interface Toolkit

In this paper we present a simple but general set of techniques for modifying output in a 2D user interface toolkit. We use a combination of simple subclassing, wrapping, and collusion between parent and output objects to produce arbitrary sets of composable output transformations. The techniques described here allow rich output effects to be added to most, if not all, existing interactors in an application, without the knowledge of the interactors themselves. This paper explains how the approach works, discusses a number of example effects that have been built, and describes how the techniques presented here could be extended to work with other toolkits. We address issues of input by examining a number of extensions to the toolkit input subsystem to accommodate transformed graphical output. Our approach uses a set of "hooks" to undo output transformations when input is to be dispatched.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: UIST
• Authors: W. Keith Edwards, Scott E. Hudson, Joshua Marinacci, Roy Rodenstein, Thomas K. Rodriguez, Ian E. Smith
• Keywords: Allow Rich Output, Composable Output Transformations, Output Transformations, Software Engineering, UIST 1997