Multi-platform user interface construction: a challenge for software engineering-in-the-small

Abstract

The popular view of software engineering focuses on managing teams of people to produce large systems. This paper addresses a different angle of software engineering, that of development for re-use and portability. We consider how an essential part of most software products - the user interface - can be successfully engineered so that it can be portable across multiple platforms and on multiple devices. Our research has identified the structure of the problem domain, and we have filled in some of the answers. We investigate promising solutions from the model-driven frameworks of the 1990s, to modern XML-based specification notations (Views, XUL, XIML, XAML), multi-platform toolkits (Qt and Gtk), and our new work, Mirrors which pioneers reflective libraries. The methodology on which Views and Mirrors is based enables existing GUI libraries to be transported to new operating systems. The paper also identifies cross-cutting challenges related to education, standardization and the impact of mobile and tangible devices on the future design of UIs. This paper seeks to position user interface construction as an important challenge in software engineering, worthy of ongoing research.