APPENDIX G GUI builders summary


Jack Parker (jparker@hpbs3645.boi.hp.com) shares: Here is a summary of all of the responses I got to my post about a GUI builder. Note there are some in the FAQ for comp.windows.x that aren't listed here.

 
                          Database        Interface
             Public       Capabilities    Designer       Where is it?
 Name        Domain?      built in?       built in?      (for PD-Software)
 __________  _______      ____________    __________     _________________
 AUIS/ATK      Yes            No             Yes (ADEW)  export.andrew.cmu.edu
 Accell/SQL    No             Yes/No (1)     Yes
 DIRT          Yes             ?             Yes         export.lcs.mit.edu
 Druid         No             No             Yes
 IEF           No             Yes             ?
 Interviews    Yes (C++)      No             Yes         interviews.stanford.edu
 GQL            ?              ?              ?
 Galaxy        No             No             Yes
 NeuronData    No             No             Yes
 Omnis 7       No             Yes            Yes
 SUIT          Yes            No              ?          cs.tut.fi
 Smartstar
 Vision        No             Yes             ?
 SuperNOVA     No             Yes            Yes
 JAM           No             Yes (DBi)      Yes
 Tcl/Tk        Yes            Yes            Yes (Xf)    sprite.berkeley.edu
 TeleUSE       No             No             Yes
 Uniface       No             Yes            Yes
 UIM/X         No (C, C++)    No             Yes
 VUIT          No (DEC)       No              ?
 ViewCenter    No (C++)       No             Yes
 Wcl           Yes            No             No (its a lib) export.lcs.mit.edu
 XVT           No             Yes (Xi)       Yes
 XView         Yes            Yes            Yes (Devguide) xview.ucdavis.edu
 Xdesigner     No             No             Yes
 Xcessory(ICS) No
 Xtpanel       Yes             ?              ?          lth.se
 Xwafe         Yes (perl-    No, but for      Yes (xwafedesign)
                    based)   Oracle there's
                               oraperl!

 Others? YES! 
 ************************ Responses *******************************************
 
 from Chris Anderson, caa@unify.com
 Yes, Accell/SQL from Unify.
 
1  What the Yes/No part means is that we work with both our own database
   product Unify2000 (which is a full featured ANSI SQL based database)
   or with Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Ingres, etc..  Our approach is
   to support all of the features that each database provides in our 4GL.
   We also support character, Motif, and Openlook presentation modes;
   you can change between them just by changing an environment variable.
 
   You can get more information from 1-800-248-6439.
 
   And of course, I can answer any specific questions that you might have,
   since I work for Unify.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Baard Haugerud, baardh@stud.cs.uit.no
 
 Have you heard about IEF (Information Engineering Facility)
 from TI/JMA. Multi platform UNIX/OS2/WINODOWS 3.1 (UNIX HP-UX Motif
 Oracle/Ingres).
 
 It will follow you throgh a project from a to z.
 planning, analysis, design, construction, .........
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Donald.Edgar, Donald.Edgar@UK.Sun.COM
 
 There is an excellent Sybase extension to Tcl by Tom Poindexter
 (tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu), available from the TCl archive at
 harbor.ecn.purdue.edu - a similar extension for another database
 vendors C lib would only take a few days.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from jeremyr@ibmpcug.co.uk
 
 SuperNOVA is written by Four Seasons, Bilthoven, Holland.  It supports
 MS-Windows Motif, OpenLook, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres, C-ISAM, Teradata,
 Unix, MS-DOS, VMS.....
 
 Please call me on +44 81 446 6481 or fax me your details on +44 81 446 9143
 and I will send you more information.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from solar%fsrg.bear.com%ursa@cmcl2.NYU.EDU
 
 XView is another X widget library comparable to Xt, Motif, and OpenLook.
 XView is not a GUI builder although Sun sells the GUI builder, devguide,
 which may be used with code generators for XView (C and C++), OpenLook,
 and TNT.
 
 >Are there any others that I've forgotten?
 
 devguide         No (C, C++)         No             Yes
 Interviews       Yes (C++)           No             Yes
 NeuronData       No (C)              No             Yes
 ViewCenter       No (C++)            No             Yes
 
 devguide does not get in the way of a programmer:  Its code generators
 generate code in files separate from those where the programmer's stub
 functions should be put and merges all code from those files each time
 a code generator is invoked.  It's a Sun only product.
 
 InterViews is freely available.  It is a high quality product with
 its own builder and extensive C++ class library.
 
 NeuronData and ViewCenter have their own widgets and their own event
 loops:  That means that you will not be able to realize widgets from
 third parties if you use that product.  If you want an off the shelf
 graph widget, ie XRT, to work with either of these two, you must resort
 to IPC.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from nathan@seldon.foundation.tricon.com
 
 I think there is one that you have forgotten.  They happen to be
 a local company here (in Santa Barbara, California) and we are
 using their product on an IBM RS/6000.  It is called "Smartstar
 Vision" and meets all of your requirements, including a special
 "virtual database" that actually lets you mix any of three
 different database types, their built-in C-ISAM based database,
 Sybase, Ingres, DEC's rdb, and Informix (soon, I hear).  Oops,
 that was more than five.  It is *not* public domain, and it is
 rather expensive for the development environment - US$12,000.
 It is a 4GL object oriented environment and is quite fun to
 develop in.
 
 They have an e-mail address, it is "sales@smartstar.com" or, to
 talk with someone directly, try "eadams@smartstar.com" or
 "edadams" at the same address.  For technical contact, try
 "mickey@smartstar.com" - she'll help you find out whatever
 you need to know technically.  Their phone number is (805) 685-8000.
 And it definitely runs on Ultrix.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Wilfred.Hansen@cs.cmu.edu
 
 The Andrew User Interface System (AUIS; formerly the Andrew Toolkit,
 ATK) offers an interface builder called ADEW together with a selection
 of widgets.  Some widgets are the usual low-level interactors;  others
 are full-scale object editors such as those for figure, rasters, and
 typographic-quality text.  AUIS is an open system;  you can add new
 objects or modify existing objects to suit your needs.  Semantics for
 interaction can be coded in C or a user-level language called Ness.
 
 For information, contact info-andrew-request@andrew.cmu.edu.
 For a demo from any X server on the internet: finger help@atk.itc.cmu.edu.
 
     Public domain?  The source code is copyright by IBM and CMU, but can
     be exploited commercially under the usual X license.
 
     Database capabilities?  No
 
     Interface designer?  Yes, ADEW
 
     Where is it?  export.andrew.cmu.edu (128.2.45.40) or CDrom
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Colin Sanson, colins@pec.co.nz
 
 UCS from Software Transformation, Inc.
 Suite 100, Cupertino, CA 95014
 TEL (408) 973-8081  FAX (408) 973-0989
 Supports Windows 3.x, Macintosh, Motif and MoOLIT.
 An 0S/2 version is under development.
 
 zApp from Inmark Development Corp.
 2065 Landings Drive, Mountain View, California.
 TEL (415) 691-9000  FAX (415) 691-9099
 Supports Windows and DOS text mode.
 Development for OS/2 2.0 and Unix X/Motif may be complete by now.
 
 Zinc from Zinc Software Incorporated.
 405 South 100 East, 2nd Floor, Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062.
 TEL (801) 785-8900  FAX (801) 785-8996
 Supports Motif, Windows, DOS text mode and DOS graphics.
 Development for OS/2 2.0 may be complete by now.
 
 XVT from XVT Software Inc.
 4900 Pearl East Circle, Box 18750, Boulder, Colorado 80308.
 TEL (303) 443-4223  FAX (303) 443-0969
 Supports Windows, OSF/Motif, OpenLook, Macintosh, PM and
 character mode DOS, UNIX and VMS systems.
 
 C++/Views from Liant Software Corporation.
 959 Concord Street, Framingham, MA 01701.
 TEL (508) 872-8700  FAX (508) 626-2221
 Supports MS Windows, OS/2 PM and Motif.
 
 Aspect from Open Inc.
 655 Southpointe Ct, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906
 TEL (719) 527-9700  FAX (719) 576-3835
 Supports Motif, OpenLook, MS Windows, Macintosh and character
 terminals.
 
 Galaxy from Visix Software Inc.
 11440 Commerce Park Drive, Reston, Virginia 22091.
 TEL (703) 758-8230  FAX (703) 758-0233
 Email info@visix.com
 Supports Macintosh, MS Windows, Motif and OpenLook.
 
 WNDX from WNDX Corporation.
 305 1550 Eight St, SW Calgary, Alberta T2R1K1.
 TEL (403) 244-0995  FAX (403) 244-1039
 Supports MS Windows, DOS graphics mode and X/Motif.
 
 OpenUI from Open Software Associates Pty Ltd.
 P.O.Box 401, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia 3134.
 TEL +61-3-871-1666
 Supports Motif, Microsoft Windows and character terminals.
 
 StarView from Star Division.
 1140 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, California 94301.
 TEL and FAX (415) 329-9008
 Supports Windows 3.1, Windows NT, OS/2 2.0, Macintosh, OpenLook and Motif.
 
 Guild from Guild Products Incorporated.
 1710 South Amphlett Blvd, San Mateo, CA 94402.
 TEL (415) 513-6650  FAX (415) 349-4908
 Supports Windows 3.1, Windows NT, OS/2 2.0 and Macintosh.
 A Motif version is under development.
 
 TeleUSE from Alsys, Inc. (formerly TeleSoft)
 Alsys CASE Division, San Diego, CA USA
 (619) 457-2700  Fax: (619) 452-1334
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from harden@ics.com
 
 I saw your posting.  A builder that was not on the list is Builder
 Xcessory (BX) from ICS.  It may be in the FAQ you alluded to, though.
 
 If you need more info on BX, let me know and I'll send you our
 standard spiel and answer any specific questions you may have.  We do
 have demos available.  Our German distributor is:
 
  Applied Systems
  Kassel, Germany
  Tel: 49 561 81 30 64
  Fax: 49 561 81 92 76
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Peter J. Scott, pjs@euclid.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
 
 Wcl is the best for my money.  It has no database nor interface
 designer (although someone in the UK wrote one called Dirt, haven't
 heard anything of it for a while).  Here's part of a report I wrote which
 explains why I recommend it:
 
 %
 \subsection{Interface Builders}
 %
 The market at present is flooded with tools with the generic title of
 ``interface builders,'' whose intended purpose is to provide a
 way for novices to construct GUIs.  Since you may have heard of these
 and been told by vendors that they save untold time in training and
 development, some elaboration is called for.
 
 Peter Scott has evaluated almost every interface builder there is -- the
 only reason he can't be sure that he's reached them all is because new
 ones are released by new vendors so often.  Every one of them takes its
 cue from the archetypal program called ``Interface Builder'' (IB) on the NeXT\@.
 However, IB saves its users more time than do its imitators, the reason being
 that IB was designed at the same time as the underlying GUI,
 NeXTStep, which is not related to X~Windows or indeed any other GUI\@.
 X~Windows, however, was never designed with an interface builder in mind
 and every such tool that is developed for it has to live with limitations
 inherent to X~Windows that would probably not have survived if its
 creators had pondered the ramifications for interface builders.  (This
 is not necessarily an indictment of X~Windows, since it achieves far more
 than NeXTStep does anyway, such as network transparency, behavior-independence,
 and other capabilities too abstruse to go into here.)
 
 The upshot for the X~Window GUI developer is that no interface builder
 on the market really shields him from the vast complexity of X~Windows
 or Motif, glitzy demonstrations notwithstanding.  There is no
 substitute for knowing how X and Motif work; no matter how much the
 interface builder is able to do by itself, eventually the developer
 is going to have to interact with the interface at the X and Motif
 level.  You can see this in just about every interface builder by
 using it to set resources of a widget; they invariably pop up a
 ``resource editor'' the use of which requires that the user understand
 the original Motif names for resources such as {\tt XmNoverrideRedirect}
 or {\tt XmNtraversalOn}.
 
 What we use for rapid prototyping is instead a tool called the
 Widget Creation Library (WCL), which makes it possible to specify
 the hierarchy and callback hooks of an application using resources.
 So much of the interface can then be specified in a simple
 textual form that virtually the only code left to be written is the
 application code which would have to have been written anyway.
 
 ******************************************************************************
 
 from Marc Kenig, marcke@rossinc.com
 
 Omnis supports both Sybase SQL and RPCs directly from it's scripting
 language (it also supports Oracle, Sequellink, Rdb, etc).  The SQL
 interface is genericised, but allows for DBMS specific features.  TheRPC allows you to send Pascal-like calls directly from the Omnis
 scripting language to Sybase RPCs, or as we are doing, RPCs written in
 Open Server.  You can return rowsets, parameters and status values
 directly back to Omnis variables.
 
 Works great.