X-Designer 4.6 - Java Edition
X-Designer: Java Edition - Release 4.6 is full of exciting
new features,
in addition
to the capabilities, such as
Design Capture and Record/Replay, of
X-Designer 4.5.
You should also look at the screen shots.
Java Code Generation
X-Designer: Java Edition sees the introduction of a Java code
generator to X-Designer, the award winning Motif GUI builder
for C and C++ which embraces cross-platform capability with
its generation of Microsoft Windows code.
In addition to being able to generate Java code for every
Motif widget, X-Designer has Motif equivalents of all the Java
interface components.
X-Designer solves the Java 'thin-client' problem for Motif
development. Even if you do not yet know you will want to
move applications to Java, or to Windows, the future is
assured with X-Designer: Java Edition.
By generating code for Motif, Microsoft Windows and Java from
a single interface design X-Designer ensures a consistent
interface across all three platforms.
Even Motif interfaces that were not produced using X-Designer
can be moved to Java or Windows by using
XD/Capture.
XD/Replay
XD/Replay can record and playback any Xt
based application.
XD/Replay records a high level description
of the user's actions e.g. "push hello_button, type Hello
World". You can then replay the sequence as and when you
need.
In playback mode, you can check the state of any widget in
the application and control the rate of playback.
XD/Replay has
a user extensible command set which is powerful, easy-to-use and
very flexible. It can be deployed in many ways:
- Record and playback Motif applications
- Automate the testing of an application
- Produce demonstrators of your product
- Debug your application
- Recreate problems found in an application
- Develop tutorials for your product
No recompilation or relink
is necessary and no special test environment is required.
XD/Capture
You can breathe new life into your old, hand-coded, Motif
applications by using XD/Capture, thus easing the pain of
legacy software maintenance.
XD/Capture
recreates the interface design of a running Motif/Xt application
so that it can be read into X-Designer, enabling you to:
- Migrate hand-crafted applications
- Check the accuracy of dynamic layout code
XD/Capture analyses running
programs, so you don't even have to relink.
X-Designer is the first
GUI builder to give you a way to migrate and update those old
Motif interfaces without requiring the source.
Multiple Selection
In a single operation you can set resource
values for any number of widgets selected from one or more dialogs.
Only those resources common to the selected widgets can be set.
Callback Editing
X-Designer 4.5 supports editing of all
your callbacks directly from within X-Designer using your favourite
editor.
XD/Help
X-Designer 4.5 provides the means to
view on-line HTML help documents. This is easily built into
your applications, and you are free to take the code to any platform,
along with the generated code.
XD/Help removes the
need to purchase expensive help packages or desktop publishing
products.
By choosing HTML for your help system, a user of your
software can choose to view using XD/Help or a web browser of
their choice. XD/Help ignores any HTML commands not in its basic
set. So you can design your help to have full graphics, and other
advanced HTML features, for viewing with a web browser, whilst
guaranteeing that the basic help system will work for all users.
X-Designer also supports a generic help API to enable
you to easily integrate help into your application. This can be
a DTP such as Interleaf or FrameMaker, or any help package that
supports a document/tag interface.
Prelude Editing
You can edit the code preludes 'in-line'
and preview the generated code using your preferred editor.
Layout Editor
The layout editor has been streamlined and
a number of other improvements incorporated, including:
- The ability to move a widget without breaking its attachments
- The ability to select overlapping widgets
- Support for RowColumn layout
AppGuru
AppGuru provides a quick start to application building by priming
a design with a pre-defined application template.
X-Designer has Motif style guide compliant templates that
can be configured on-line to meet your particular application
requirements. You can also add your own templates, enabling you
to set up corporate or project configured designs.
AppGuru's features with X-Designer's definition mechanism
makes rapid application development through re-use even easier.
Resource Bindings
You can generate X resources that use
either loose or tight bindings. Loose bindings allow widgets to
share resources, so you can use them to ensure a consistent interface.
Tight bindings remove ambiguities across your application resources.
CDE Support
A special filter allows users to move their CDE AppBuilder
designs to X-Designer. The AppBuilder is a simplistic Motif
builder that comes bundled with CDE on Sun platforms.
Code Generation Overview
You specify and generate all your files
(headers, main module, resources, Makefile etc.) from a single
dialog.
Advanced Pixmap Editor
Designing a set of consistent pixmaps
is easy with X-Designer's palette features. Colour palettes
can be saved and applied to many pixmaps, and the palette editor
can add, remove and rearrange colours. Facilities also exist
to scale, reflect and rotate pixmaps.
Transparent colour
support and production of a stippled version of an icon, make
life easy for the designer.
|
