We present a software model and language for describing and programming the fine-grained aspects of interaction in a non-WIMP user interface, such as a virtual environment. Our approach is based on our view that the essence of a non-WIMP dialogue is a set of continuous relationships-most of which are temporary. The model combines a data-flow or constraintlike component for the continuous relationships with an event-based component for discrete interactions, which can enable or disable individual continuous relationships. To demonstrate our approach, we present the PMIW user interface management system for non-WIMP interactions, a set of examples running under it, a visual editor for our user interface description language, and a discussion of our implementation and our restricted use of constraints for a performance-driven interactive situation. Our goal is to provide a model and language that captures the formal structure of non-WIMP interactions in the way that various previous techniques have captured command-based, textual, and event-based styles and to suggest that using it need not compromise real-time performance.

The SHADOW System is a user interface management system designed to address the specific needs of non-WIMP interfaces such as virtual environments, gesture recognizers and other interactions that involve highly parallel, continuous interaction. The proposed UIMS consists of a graphical specification language based on augmented transition networks and data flow graphs, a code translation system which supports dynamic constraint binding, modular design and code reuse, and a run time engine designed to optimize the use of processing resources within a time sensitive environment while preserving a layer of platform independence for the application. Keywords

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Graphical user interfaces can provide interactive and intuitive visual communication to fault simulation and analysis application programs, enhancing the capabilities of engineers to conduct studies with ease and flexibility. Unfortunately, such benefits often come at the price of efficient CPU utilization and more complicated maintenance activities. Employing a distributed architecture can mitigate these costs by trading the one-time cost of more complex design activities for the long term benefits of ease of use and efficient resource utilization. TUFTsim, a multi-level concurrent simulation system, has been designed to address these concerns and demonstrates that an extensible, distributed architecture can be created without incurring excessive cost in processor and resource consumption. In addition, the investment in this architecture has also yielded benefits with respect to long-term maintenance and other software engineering considerations.

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