Implementation of label metaphor using shared interaction object architecture

Abstract

Label model is a framework of script processing, which is a natural extension of desktop metaphor like the B T R O N GUI environment. T h e m a i n idea of the label model is that a script program is just a piece of "memo label" attached upon a document, which contains several operations o n the document. In the model, a script program is described as a sequence of operations o n graphical objects of the document data. T h e m a i n contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that shared interaction-object architecture facilitates the implementation of the label model. It is a n architecture model of GUI applications, in which graphical objects of GUI applications are preserved in distributed shared memories specially tailored f o r GUI. This allows script programs to operate the data f r o m outside the GUI applications. T h e major benefit of this architecture is that it satisfies the following two requirements: First, script processing can be handled transparently f r o m GUI applications, second, this architecture gives rather abstract interface of GUI applications to script programs.