[haiku-development] Re: Two successful final year projects

On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 7:30 PM, Christof Lutteroth
<lutteroth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I am happy to show to you the results of two successful final year software
> engineering projects here at the University of Auckland. Both projects were
> supervised by my colleague Gerald Weber and me. You might have read some of
> the students' emails on this mailing list.
>
> The first project was undertaken by Ahmed Al Hassani and Mohannad Hammadeh
> and is called "A more manageable multi-window interface". Ahmed and Mohannad
> extended the Haiku app server with functionality for tiling and stacking of
> windows. That is, windows can be arranged in a non-overlapping manner by
> snapping them to other windows, or stacked similar to tabbing in a web
> browser. Have a look at their screencast, which explains the new features:
> http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~lutteroth/videos/stack-and-tile.html
> The two have not only implemented the new features but have also evaluated
> them using eye tracking equipment, showing that with a high probability
> stack & tile is more efficient in certain situations.
>
> The second project is called "Multi-platform document-oriented GUIs", and
> was undertaken by James Kim and John Kim. They extended the Auckland Layout
> Model (ALM), which is a layout manager based on linear programming that has
> already found its way into the Haiku source tree. They implemented new
> functionality that allows users to switch a GUI of a running application
> into an "editing mode", in which a user can modify the GUI using a WYSIWIG
> editor. A user can customize a GUI on demand, and immediately use it
> afterwards. The only requirement is that ALM was used as the layout manager.
> Customized layouts can be loaded and saved using XML files, which can be
> used on different platforms (Java, .NET, Haiku) to produce the same layout.
> Have a look at their screencast:
> http://aucklandlayout.sourceforge.net/videos/alm-editor.html
> The example GUI in the screencast consists mostly of buttons, however, the
> layout manager and editor work with any type of control. James and John have
> also performed a small evaluation of the prototype, which indicated that
> many end-users appreciate this new feature.
>
> Both projects are ongoing. If there is any interest, we would be more than
> happy to give the code to the Haiku project. The window management functions
> developed in the first project might be useful as an optional feature that
> can be turned on and off somewhere in a preference app. The extension of ALM
> developed in the second project does not have any immediate impact on the
> system. It would only enrich the existing ALM API.
>
> Thank you for supporting these projects by answering queries on the mailing
> list. Particularly, I would like to thank Ingo for his support.
>
> A merry Christmas and a happy new year!
>
> Christof
>
>

Christof,
Cool projects your students worked on.  Hopefully this will be an
annual event there?  Haiku seems to be well suited for this type of
University level project.  I've often thought that BeOS/Haiku would
make for a good subject for an intro class on GUI development, but
there's still no textbook on the subject.  I think the key parts of
the API can be taught in a single semester.  The "Programming the Be
Operating System" book comes close, but it a little outdated now.

I say +1 for adding both of these projects into Haiku in some way,
perhaps enabled in a preference app.

Do you have a direct link to the videos?  Haiku is flashless still so
I have to use a different computer to see them.

-scottmc

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