Open Dialogue [UIMS]

Open Dialogue is a user interface management system (UIMS) that allows the user to create interfaces to applications. Open Dialogue is written in the object-oriented C++ programming language and supports applications written in C, C++, Pascal, FORTRAN, and Ada. It is layered on X-windows and uses data structures, called objects, to contain the information related to an interface. The data fields in an object are called its variables and by manipulating the value of these variables, the appearance is determined. Open Dialogue includes a predefined set of classes that can be used to create objects. In addition, the user can customize the product by adding new, user-defined classes, and this is how Open Dialogue supports Motif Style classes. The author discusses Open Dialogue´s: features and advantages, object-oriented design, hierarchies, variables and attributes, data flow among objects, supplier/consumer relationship and customization