Designing the Next Generation of UIMS

Some new suggestions are made relating to the structure of User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) which may be beneficial in enhancing their functionality, both with respect to the User Interface (UI) developer, and the eventual UI end-user. Advantages to the developer stem from improved specification facilities that may be provided with the new UIMS architecture, while the end-user can benefit from easier to use UIs with better response times. An explanation of UIMS model hierarchies is given, and different types of UI separation: Physical, Logical, and Virtual, are introduced. The advantages of Virtual Separation and the requirements introduced by it are outlined. The specification of the UI is discussed in relation to the new concepts involved. These issues have an impact on the architecture of the Interactive Application created with the UIMS, this is discussed along with some ideas for UI code generation.