The SIGCSE 2001 Maze Demonstration Program Richard Rasala, Jeff Raab, Viera K. Proulx College of Computer Science Northeastern University Boston MA This work supported by NSF DUE

The Joy of Toolkits The SIGCSE Maze Demo shows that with the proper toolkits it is quite feasible to build demos & laboratories with full graphical user interfaces in a very, very short period of time. As a consequence, it is no longer necessary to teach freshmen using more primitive interfaces. See “Toolkits... A Pedagogical Imperative” in SIGCSE 2000 for further discussion of general issues about using toolkits.

Prove It! Show Some Demos!

Java Power Tools 1 With powerful encapsulation, use of a GUI view should normally require at most four lines of code: Construct the view Position the view in the interface Send user data from the view to the model Send model data from the model to the view

Java Power Tools 2 Encapsulate model view communication as the fundamental backbone of GUI building: Stringable models Displayable views TypedView & GeneralView extend Displayable Automatic error checking Automatic error recovery Enables a recursive philosophy of GUI building

Java Power Tools 3 Powerful Panels DisplayPanel : base view that supports model view communication in a recursive fashion BufferedPanel : graphics view with automatic refresh supported by powerful plot tools TablePanel : panel for general tables ActionsPanel : panel to encapsulate actions as buttons ArrayPanel : panel for user extendible arrays Zoo : panel for mouse manipulation of items

Java Power Tools 4 Powerful Widgets TextFieldView : for strings to models TextAreaView : for general text BooleanView : for check boxes OptionsView : for radio buttons DropdownView : for dropdown lists ColorView : for r, g, b, alpha color choosing SliderView : for slider choice FileView : for file dialogs

More Demos Please!

Problem Set Framework The Problem Set Framework is so powerful that we recommend that you use it even if you choose not to use the Java Power Tools in general PSF works for small problems PSF is a wonderful tool for unit testing PSF can be used to integrate multiple apps

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