science

User interface management system

User interface management system is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand User interface management system rather than just read about it. In short: A User Interface Management System (UIMS) is a mechanism for cleanly separating process or business logic from Graphical user interface (GUI) code in a computer program. UIMS are designed to support N-tier architectures by strictly defining and enforcing the boundary between the business logic and the GUI.

Key takeaways

User interface management system belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect User interface management system to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of User interface management system from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A User Interface Management System (UIMS) is a mechanism for cleanly separating process or business logic from Graphical user interface (GUI) code in a computer program. UIMS are designed to support N-tier architectures by strictly defining and enforcing the boundary between the business logic and the GUI. A fairly rigid Software architecture is nearly always implied by the UIMS, and most often only one paradigm of separation is supported in a single UIMS. A UIMS may also have libraries and systems such as graphical tools for the creation of user interface resources or data stores. Generally, you cannot easily use multiple UIMS systems at the same time, so choosing the correct model for your UIMS is a critical design decision in any project. The choice of system is dependent upon the system(s) you wish to create user interfaces for, and the general style of your application. For example, if you want to create a web based front end, or just a standalone application or both that would be an important factor in choosing. If you want to deploy to the Macintosh, Windows and Linux, that would further influence your choice of a UIMS system. There are many UIMS approaches described in research papers. However, there are not very many systems available commercially or through open source.

Models In a frequently cited body of work, Foley and Wallace describe a "linguistic model" for user interface management consisting of a Presentation Layer, a Dialog Control layer and an Application layer. These layers correspond to the lexical, syntactic and semantic layers from formal language theory. While Foley's model is theoretically enlightening, it does not propose a specific practical system for separating code. There are also many interesting border cases that don't fall cleanly into one of these layers. A more directly applicable theory of user interface management is the model–view–controller design pattern, which is described in detail in its own article. A recent variant of MVC is the model–view–presenter model which is similar to MVC, but has some interesting insights into the problem.

Implementations A functional based system approaches all user interface actions as interfaces for functions. Dialogs exist solely to collect parameters for functions that are called when the dialog is closing. Menu Trees are one family of model implementations that follow this pattern. Grammar based UIMS provide a specialized language for describing the user interface. Usually, this is a special language designed specifically for the presentation of user interface elements. The Editing Model is a specialization of grammar based UIMS. They present all interaction as direct presentations of underlying presentation objects. Essentially, using the grammar of the programming language as the grammar for the GUI. A scroll bar may present an integer, a check box may present a boolean, a function is presented as a button or menu item. A dialog box or a menu is a presentation of a complex object containing properties and functions. A controller layer automatically synchronizes the object with the presentation and vice versa through a two way connection provided by an Observer pattern. Enable/disable and validation present special challenges under the editing model, but they can be dealt with. A commercial program, ViewSoft Internet, was briefly available in the 1990s that implemented a general purpose GUI builder based upon the Editing Model. Transition Networks present the user interface logic as a kind of intelligent flowchart. In an Event Language model, the computer language is designed around the handling of events. This is essentially the approach taken in Microsoft's .Net languages C# and Visual Basic.Net with their delegate and event language structures. Other models include Hypertalk, Production Systems and Declarative Languages.

Examples of UIMS and models Tiger MenuLay HyperCard ViewSoft Internet Sassafras ALGEA Squeak Model–view–controller (MVC) Model–view–presenter (MVP) Linguistic model Seeheim model Higgins UIMS Arch model Picasso-3 ProcSee Common Lisp Interface Manager

Top researchers Important research in this field has been done by Brad Myers, Dan Olsen, Scott Hudson and James D. Foley.

References

External links Model View Presenter A UIMS Course Outline ProcSee UIMS User Interface Management Systems: Models and Algorithms

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with User interface management system

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what User interface management system claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to User interface management system before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about User interface management system ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of User interface management system

In research: User interface management system appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses User interface management system in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: User interface management system is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Management systems, User interfaces, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for User interface management system outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study User interface management system in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what User interface management system means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain User interface management system out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is User interface management system in simple terms?

Why does User interface management system matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study User interface management system?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on User interface management system.