An increasing number of APLs support the 'Mac-like' interface, with its pioneering ideas of Windows, Icons, Mice and Pull-down Menus. Technically exciting these may be; what is lacking is any useful experience of handling these techniques in APL application design. The author has tackled the problem from the application end: a collection of functions has been evolved (written in APL*PLUS/PC) to provide simple windows and menus using text characters only. The major benefits of the windowing/menu approach are found to be: 1) portability of ideas. What runs now on the PC and the Amiga will largely run on VS APL under GDDM (Vn 2) on the mainframe. 2) simplicity of design. With windows you can throw away many of those AP124-type panels and revert to 'quote-quad' input. 3) ease of validation. With a scroll-bar selection, the user has no choice but to input a valid reply. 4) ease of use, and 'PC' feel. Why not make Lotus-123 users feel at home? Typical applications include a shop-floor information system for chocolate manufacture, and a 'rule-inducing' expert system shell. Copies of the window functions are included at the end of this paper, or are available via the BAA Software Exchange.
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Windows and pop-up menus in application design
Smith, A.
Follow ACM SIGAPL APL Quote Quad
, Volume 18 (2)
Association for Computing Machinery – Dec 1, 1987
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