Panther: A Specification System for Graphical Controls

A system for specifying graphical user-interface modules, called panther, is currently being developed. Panther interface modules may be any combination of menus and control panels. Modules specification is done by editing a textual table, or form, which displays all of a module's relevant data at once. Hierarchies of related modules may be specified with a single input table. The table serves as input to Panther's preprocessor which outputs documented C source code. One or more modules can be loaded with an application program to completely handle its user-interface. The application program invokes a module with a single function call and, if necessary, a single initialization call. Both pop-up and pull-down modes of interaction are supported.