X-Designer 4.0 - The Cross-Platform GUI Builder
X-Designer is the first cross-platform graphical user
interface builder that delivers a flexible, non-proprietary
solution for software developers who are porting applications
between X/Motif and Microsoft Windows.
You should also have a look at the
Screen Shots.
X-Designer 4.0 is now an old version - if you haven't already
done so you should look at
X-Designer 5.5.
Rapid Prototyping - Rapid Development
The growing trend towards client-server computing offers
end-users a quantum leap in application functionality and
performance. Text-based terminals are being replaced by
powerful desktop PCs and workstations running easy-to-learn,
easy-to use graphical user interfaces (GUIs). For the
developers of such GUI applications this can involve wrestling
with complex programming interfaces, poring over cryptic
documentation, and hand-crafting many thousands of lines of
code. X-Designer provides the solution: rapid user interface
development without the complexity.
X-Designer is the fastest and friendliest tool on the market
for developing and deploying advanced GUI applications,
offering the developer a completely intuitive point-and-click
interface built around a set of specialised editors. These
include an Advanced Layout Editor, a Widget Hierarchy Editor,
categorised Resource Editors, a Compound String Editor, a Font
Editor, a Pixmap Editor, and a
Colour Editor, each of which is
optimised to address the difficulties inherent in constructing
quality GUI applications. After the design is complete,
thousands of lines of C or C++ code can be generated at the
touch of a button, targeted for either Motif or Windows
platforms.
Experienced GUI developers who use X-Designer report that they
can build applications in a fraction of the time and with far
fewer errors that previously, allowing them to spend more time
on generating polished applications that stand out above the
crowd. The pervasive reuse features of X-Designer allow
commonly used GUI components to be shared amongst developers,
once again dramatically reducing the time-to-market for new
applications.
Structured C & C++ Code Generation
X-Designer provides complete control over the structure of the
C or C++ code generated. IST draws upon considerable
experience in porting X-Designer across more than twenty
platforms to ensure that the generated code is completely
portable. There are no proprietary libraries or languages and
no run-time system beyond the native windowing toolkits.
Any widget hierarchy can be encapsulated in the generated code
as a C function or structure, or a C++ class. Widget data
structures can be declared global, static, local, public,
protected or private in scope. X-Designer will make
intelligent choices for the default code structure.
Structured code generation comes into its own when you use
C++. X-Designer follows the widely accepted Douglas Young
approach where individual widgets or widget hierarchies can be
encapsulated within a C++ class. Each of these can then
become a reusable element in the X-Designer palette and may be
subclassed to suit changing requirements. Incremental
generation of callback stubs files and Makefiles allows the
interface design to evolve in step with the application code.
This reduces the chance of developer code being accidentally
overwritten.
Reusable Components
Reuse is central to X-Designer's design philosophy. Any
widget hierarchy, or sub-hierarchy, can be saved as a reusable
definition that appears as a new 'composite widget' on the
X-Designer palette. Instances of this definition can be used
both to speed the development of subsequent designs and to
provide cross-platform conformity. All resource settings and
callbacks can either be inherited from the definition or
overridden in the instance. New widgets can be added within
an instance hierarchy, thus customising the object across
different applications and contexts. Definitions are
especially useful when generating C++ code since instances are
implemented as subclasses from the class encapsulating the
definition's hierarchy. This provides all the power of
object-oriented inheritance.
The arrangement of a Form widget's children used to be one of
the most daunting tasks facing a Motif programmer, but
X-Designer's Layout Editor has reduced it to a few minutes
design work. With a simple click-and-drag interface and
multi-level Undo button the developer can quickly experiment
with different layouts and resize behaviours.
For developers interested in cross-platform GUI applications
X-Designer will automatically generate C++ code to reproduce
the sophisticated Motif-style resize behaviour in the Windows
environment.
Designing colour icons could not be easier. With a set of
familiar drawing tools, a customisable colour palette, a
full-function zoom, and an icon previewer, X-Designer's Pixmap
Editor can be used to design the most user-friendly and
attractive interfaces. By adhering to the industry-standard
XPM format, pixmaps can be imported from a wide variety of
external sources and easily exported as Windows ICO or BMP
files.
Animating The Interface
X-Designer incorporates an easy method for animating
multi-window interfaces without writing a single line of code.
A graphical point-and-click editor can be used to establish
links between widgets. A single push of a button can, for
example, popup another dialog, disable a few buttons, hide
some of the interface, and perform any number of other
actions. This feature is so easy to use that non-programmers,
graphic designers for example, can rapidly prototype an
interface and interact with target users to produce a usable,
functional interface.
Cross-Platform Development
X-Designer delivers a flexible, non-proprietary solution for
software developers who are porting applications between Motif
and Windows by targeting the Microsoft Foundation Class
library (MFC) - the de facto industry standard - as the
Windows interface. This approach assures compatibility with
all existing and future Windows platforms: Windows 3.1,
Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows NT, for example,
without recourse to any proprietary libraries and
environments that emulate the Windows look-and-feel.
Running in Windows mode
When running in Windows mode, XDesigner:
- generates MFC code which can be compiled with native Windows
tools, such as Microsoft's Visual C++
- steers the developer towards designing an interface composed
of GUI elements common to the Motif and Windows environments
- provides visual hints on elements or Motif resource settings
that have no effect in the more restricted Windows environment
- does not impose a 'lowest common denominator' approach on the
cross-platform developer
X-Designer's Font Editor helps in browsing font specification
and in selecting fonts by family, orientation, point size or
other criteria. As with all the X-Designer editors the final
selection can be bound to a named object. These objects can
then be reused throughout the design, and even across designs,
allowing rapid design revision and customisation by changing
the object as opposed to all its references.
Integration With Third Party Products
X-Designer does not force developers into an unfamiliar or
proprietary software development environment. Instead IST has
done all the work needed to install X-Designer as a
well-behaved application within the leading software
development environments: SPARCworks, CodeCenter,
ObjectCenter, HP SoftBench and IBM SDE Workbench, to name a
few. So the customer may choose the development environment,
not IST.
In addition, X-Designer has a user-friendly utility through
which third-party widgets can be installed as reusable objects
on the X-Designer palette. Specialised resource editors from
the third-party widget vendors can be directly linked into the
X-Designer application. Tried-and-tested third-party
integrations include the XRT, INT, CDE, Athena and OpenGL
widget sets.
X-Designer also provides simple mechanisms to allow developers
to augment GUI applications with full hypertext help based on
FrameMaker or Interleaf document viewers.
X-Designer Features
- WYSIWYG Interface Design
- Flexible C, C++ and UIL Generation
- ANSI C Support
- Live Interface Design
- No Proprietary Libraries
- Incremental Stubs File Generation
- Incremental Makefile Generation
- Code Preludes
- Advanced Layout Editor
- Hierarchy Editor
- Grouped Resources Editor
- Font Editor
- Pixmap Editor
- Compound String Editor
- Customisable Toolbar
- Graphical Search and Annotation
- Rapid Menu Construction
- Full Context-sensitive Help
- Support for Drag & Drop
- Support for Tear-off Menus
- OPEN LOOK DevGuide Import
- UIL Import and Export
- Reusable Widget Hierarchies
- Auto Align and Distribute
- Easy Sub-classing
- Customisable Widget Palette
- User-defined Widget Integration
- Resource Objects
- HyperText Help
- Definitions
- Internationalisation
- Demos and Sample Code
X-Designer's Cross Platform Features
- Generates code for Motif and all flavours of Microsoft
Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, and
Windows NT)
- Native code produced, no emulation and no 'lowest common
denominator' effect
- No proprietary class library - X-Designer generates Microsoft
Foundation Class (MFC) code, the de facto API for writing
Windows applications
- High quality generated code similar to the MFC code a
developer would write
- Interfaces on UNIX and VMS platforms retain full Motif
functionality
- Windows support comes with standard X-Designer - no
additional software has to be purchased
- Existing designs can be translated into Windows code
- Visual hints on Motif-only elements
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