OASIS
User Interface Markup Language (UIML)
Technical Committee (TC)
Minutes
Logistics
Meeting Date
/ November 24, 2003Meeting Time / 10:00 AM EST
Location / Meeting held via Teleconference hosted by Harmonia, Inc.
Duration / 1 Hour
Chair / Marc Abrams
Recording Secretary / Jim Helms
Roll-call
Name /Organization
/ 12-Dec-02 / 03-Jan-27 / 03-Feb 10 / 03-Feb-17 / 03-Mar-17 / 03-Apr-24 / 03-June-16 / 03- July-21 / 03-Oct-20 / 03-Nov-24Marc Abrams / Virginia Tech / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y
Didier Courtaud / University of Evry / Y / N / N / N / N / N / N / N / N / N
Gaelle Feat / University of Evry / Y / N / N / N / N / N / N / N / N / N
Hedy Alban / Effective Analyses / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / N / N / N
Jim Helms / Harmonia, Inc. / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y / Y
Sridhar Dhulipala (Dhuli) / Infosys / Y / Y / N / N / Y / N / N / N / N / N
Yanjing Liu / Luna Innovations / - / - / - / Y / N / N / Y / N / N / N
Ralph Miller / Computer Sciences Corp. / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / Y / N / N
Kris Luyten / Limburgs Universitair Centrum / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / Y
Business In Order
Special Note
The TC meeting was postponed to the 24th of November so that the TC could accommodate the schedule of an invited speaker.Discussion with Kris Luyten
Marc Abrams and Jim Helms of the UIML TC met via teleconference with Kris Luyten of the Limburgs Universitair Centrum in Belgium. Kris is a Ph.D. student at the university who has created a UIML Renderer for C# and .NET.Kris’s interest in UIML grew out of two sources:
· An earlier project involving the creation of embedded systems user interfaces in which the team created their own simple XML user interface language
· His current interest in creating pervasive and ubiquitous user interfaces on multiple platforms. This interest extends to multimodal interfaces as well.
Kris is involved in a current project whose goal is to provide the ability to migrate information from embedded systems to mobile devices. The project will provide mechanisms that make mobile devices reactive to the location they are in. The example he gave was of a user arriving at a train station and his/her mobile device immediately interfacing with the train station’s information system to provide train departure times. Kris believes that an XML user interface definition language provides the most flexibility in migrating and adapting interfaces for multiple platforms.
Kris’s UIML to C# renderer is intended to be released as an Open Source tool that commercial tools can be built on. He has requested the assistance of the TC in determining which Open Source license to use and would like to receive feedback on his implementation of the UIML 3.0 specification.
Kris had several key insights regarding using the UIML 3.0 specification. Among them were the following issues and his suggestions for overcoming them./
· Layout should be addressed by the specification
Kris pointed out that the UIML 3.0 specification does not address layout considerations. This lack of attention is intentional as the language designers envisioned the definition of layout constraints as part of vocabulary definition. Kris recommends providing limited guidance in the specification.
· Connection to the application logic should be provided on a per-instance basis instead of per-class
Kris discussed his difficulties in connecting <call> elements to specific instances of an application object. He suggested the use of a naming service that would map names in the XML to specific instances in the code, but mentioned that this may require the author to know the names of the objects beforehand. As an alternative, Kris suggested using a Model-View-Controller scheme that would allow dynamic objects to be incorporated into the object model at runtime. Then a GLADE-like auto-connect method could be used to connect the instance to the interface.
· Vocabularies should provide some means to inherit properties from one class to another
Kris also thought that vocabularies could be auto generated using introspection.
· Vocabularies should better support parameterized constructors of widgets
Kris discovered some difficulty in creating a GTK Label widget in his renderer. This widget (like the Java.awt.Label) does not have a parameter-less constructor, thus some properties are required before object can be instantiated. Kris suggested creating an new value “constructor” that can be a valid input to the “maps-type” attribute of an d-property tag.
In addition to this feedback on the UIML 3.0 specification, Kris also discussed connection UIML to Web Services and Xlink.
User Interface Definition Language Workshop
Marc Abrams and Kris Luyten are working to establish a workshop on User Interface Definition Languages at an upcoming HCI conference. The specific conference and venue are still being discussed.