LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 3/15/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
ASP.NET MVC 2 Ships
ASP.NET MVC 2 has shipped.
03/12/2010 10:26 AM EST

Microsoft plans 'open' Silverlight analytics framework
Microsoft is going to announce a multipurpose analytics framework for Silverlight at MIX.
03/11/2010 09:51 AM EST

About CSS processing
Two sites that lead to a startling CSS conclusion.
03/10/2010 02:29 AM EST

 

Events calendar tab
SHARE
3/14/2010 to 3/18/2010
Seattle, Wa.
SHARE

Cloud Connect
3/15/2010 to 3/18/2010
Santa Clara, Calif.
TechWeb

Microsoft MIX10
3/15/2010 to 3/17/2010
Las Vegas
Microsoft

SharePointPro Summit & Expo
3/16/2010 to 3/19/2010
Las Vegas
Penton Media

TheServerSide Java Symposium
3/17/2010 to 3/19/2010
Las Vegas
TechTarget


 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Even with its success, .NET causes some consternation
Despite its popularity, the developer community believes that .NET isn't being fully serve...

Appcelerator dev environment targets Android, iPhone
This unified development environment compiles JavaScript into Objective-C or Java, and wil...

Eclipse creates new sub-projects for Mylyn
The sub-projects are designed to help organizations adopt agile ALM, and they will also br...

Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter

Altia Design 5.0 Adds Object Browser


Tool brings embedded interface prototyping from the 'dark ages' to the desktop

By Edward J. Correia
August 1, 2002 — 
A great deal of thought goes into the controls and user interfaces in aircraft, motor vehicles and other systems used every day. Now, embedded interface design tools maker Altia Inc. has turned its attention inward with the release last month of Design 5.0, the latest version of its visual prototyping tool that provides developers with an object browser and a variety of new interface controls.

According to Tom Walton, vice president of engineering at Altia (www.altia.com), before the object browser, prototype navigation was more time-consuming, and could involve clicking through many layers of a design. "Now we have a browser that lets you see the whole design in a tree view, and go right into the level you need." The browser also lets developers search by component attribute to locate specific program segments, he said.

Altia also added more predeveloped user control components, including tabs, sliders and toggles, that Walton said developers can drag and drop onto included forms or their own bitmaps to quickly create prototypes of any control system. "Your user interface can be physical knobs, switches and buttons for a climate control or a radio, let's say. Users click and drag to change their settings," he explained, with those changes linked to back-end operations or scripts.

Unlike the alternatives, which Walton said include sketches and physical replications, virtual prototypes are flexible and relatively inexpensive. "If we go back to the dark ages, the alternative is to have your shop build you a plastic mock-up with real knobs and switches. That costs you a ton of money and you can't make changes."

Today, Walton said Altia's primary competitor is individual hand drawings or animations created with programs such as Macromedia's Flash, and he asserted Design's superiority in this arena. "In a prototype, the customer can press any button at any time. So a Macromedia time-based sequence for every button combination would be a huge monster. Our scripting is event-driven and is not dependent on a certain sequence," making it more similar to the way in which software is actually designed, he said.

Design 5.0 for Windows costs $9,900; unlimited prototypes can be distributed royalty-free for testing on Windows desktops, and through Netscape and Microsoft browsers. A version for Unix is expected this fall. Once the prototype is ready for implementation, developers have two options: They can either rebuild the interface from scratch using their own tools, or purchase Altia's Deep Screen code generator for $25,000 and convert their prototypes into ActiveX controls or source code for Linux, QNX, VxWorks or Windows CE.

Walton said Deep Screen can generate code from all or part of a design. "That's important because I might have a prototype with knobs and dials around a display screen and I only want to generate code for the display screen. I can target code just for the display."

Both tools are available now.


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/26656
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading