AUTOMATICALLY-MAINTAINED CUSTOMIZABLE USER INTERFACES

摘要

Techniques for providing interactive user interfaces for programming constructs. A programming construct is associated with one or more metaphors (837) that specify interactive user interfaces (807) for the programming construct. Thus, a programming construct may have a metaphor for a text-based user interface or for one or more different graphical user interfaces. The metaphor may be associated with a description of the construct such as that found in an abstract syntax tree (823), and the metaphor may obtain the information it needs to construct the interface from the description, so that the user interfaces automatically track changes in the programming construct. Also included is apparatus for modifying the metaphor. In one implementation, a build form function (1407) is used to read the information needed to construct the construct's user interface from the construct's description and the metaphor is modified by modifying the build form function. In the implementation, parameter values received via the user interface are incorporated into an abstract syntax tree that represents the construct.