SEGUE: support for distributed graphical interfaces

Abstract

A description is given of SEGUE, a system for the specification and generation of structured graphical interfaces for distributed systems. The user interface resides on as raster-graphics workstation, but the application program may execute on one or more other machines connected to that workstation by a local area network. SEGUE is based on standard editor technology, but extends it to provide a general interface to arbitrary application programs and to allow the interface to be remote from the application program. It is based on the specification of two tree structures and a mapping between them. One tree corresponds to data structures in the application program, while the other defines the user display. A prototype version of SEGUE has been built on a SUN workstation and has been used to build a number of interfaces, including one for an Ada structured editor.<>