Chiron is a user interface management system (UIMS) designed to solve a number of problems typical of earlier user interface architectures. The main goal of Chiron is to provide for development and runtime operation of user interfaces that are highly maintainable, flexible, and separable from the application itself.
Chiron is now in its second design prototype. The first prototype known as Chiron-0, while meeting some of the goals was found to be deficient in meeting others. Thus, a complete redesign of Chiron was instituted and resulting in the design called Chiron-1. Chiron-1's architecture meets the Chiron goals far better than the Chiron-0 architecture could.
This dissertation examines and evaluates the design of both Chiron-0 and Chiron-1 with respect to four qualities:
The contributions of the dissertation are approaches, mechanisms, and design techniques for UIMSs, being distinguished with respect to these qualities.
Abstraction is the basis for providing the other three. Chiron strongly and transparently separates the user interface from the application's functionality. Chiron's only assumption about the structure of an application is that it contains abstract data types (ADTs). Chiron intercepts and monitors the calls into ADTs. The information in the calls is passed on to artists, active entities that encapsulate the user interface presentation and dialogue for an ADT. The artists use this data to present the ADT to the user and allow the user to interact with the application. Chiron user interfaces are independent of any particular look-and-feel. The desired look-and-feel can be chosen at runtime to suit the particular tastes of the user.
Chiron-1 is a client-server design where one server may serve many clients written in different languages. Chiron-1 defines a client-server protocol that is independent of any application language. Only the client runtime support needs to be language aware.
Chiron-1 offers extensible sets of user interface objects for use by the artists in providing their user interface. These sets encapsulate different look-and-feels.