XWIB: an X-Windows interface builder for scientific and engineering application programs

Abstract

Input to scientific programs (particularly, numerical simulation programs) traditionally requires an in-depth knowledge of complex and interdependent syntactic, semantic, and conceptual information. The effort to acquire this knowledge can deter a novice user from learning a program or cause an expert user to make errors. The XWIB (X-Windows Interface Builder) tool is designed to reduce this cognitive burden by supporting the specification and execution of a graphical user interface oriented toward creating input files for scientific programs.