As Unix Software Laboratories Inc begins previewing its own independent look and feel user interface technology (CI No 1,795), Colorado Springs-based Open Inc says that its new graphical user interface technology, called Aspect, enables a single application to work with all the windowing systems including the Open Software Foundation’s Motif, Sun Microsystems Inc’s Open Look, Microsoft Corp’s Windows and Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh. And Aspect also has a windowing system for character-based terminals that emulates a graphical user interface for those who have not. The company says that Aspect works directly with the native toolboxes of each graphical user interface to retain the true look and feel of each product. It provides a C-callable applications programming interface, and its IDT Interactive Design Tool can be used for designing the user interface via pointing and clicking, independently of the target environment. IDT has a resource database, which enables a developer to delay the binding of portions of the user interface until run-time, so that the application’s user interface can be customised without re-compilation. Development licences are available which allow for the right to distribute without royalty. Motif and character-based versions are first off the production line, with ones for other user inter faces promised by the second quarter of next year.
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