Interface Description Language Research Articles

Efficient Data Exchange between WebAssembly Modules

In the past two decades, there has been a noticeable decoupling of machines and operating systems. In this context, WebAssembly has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional virtual machines. Originally designed for execution in web browsers, it has expanded to executing code in restricted and secure environments, and it stands out for its rapid startup, small footprint, and portability. However, WebAssembly presents significant challenges in data transfer and the management of interactions with the module. Its specification requires each module to have its own memory, resulting in a “share-nothing” architecture. This restriction, combined with the limitations of importing and exporting functions that only handle numerical values, and the absence of an application binary interface (ABI) for sharing more complex data structures, leads to efficiency problems; these are exacerbated by the variety of programming languages that can be compiled and executed in the same environment. To address this inefficiency, the Karmem was designed and developed. It includes a new interface description language (IDL) aimed at facilitating the definition of data, functions, and relationships between modules. Additionally, a proprietary protocol—an optimized ABI for efficient data reading and minimal decoding cost—was created. A code generator capable of producing code for various programming languages was also conceived, ensuring harmonious interaction with the ABI and the foreign function interface. Finally, the compact runtime of Karmem, built atop a WebAssembly runtime, enables communication between modules and shared memory. Results of the experiments conducted show that Karmem represents an innovation in data communication for WASM in multiple environments and demonstrates the ability to overcome challenges of efficiency and interoperability.

OpenUIDL, A User Interface Description Language for Runtime Omni-Channel User Interfaces

We extend the concept of cross-device user interfaces into the new, more general, concept of omni-channel user interfaces to better reflect the technological variety offered for developing multi-target user interfaces for interactive applications. We present a model-based approach for developing runtime omni-channel user interfaces for multi-target applications, which consists of: (1) OpenUIDL, a user interface description language for describing omni-channel user interfaces with its semantics by a meta-model and its syntax based on JSON, (2) the definition of a step-wise approach for producing runtime interactive applications based onOpenUIDLwith integration into the development life cycle, (3) the development of a cloud-based, OpenUIDL compliant, Interactive Development Environment that supports the application and the enactment of the step-wise approach and its illustration on several multi-target user interfaces.

Capability-based semantic interoperability of manufacturing resources: A BaSys 4.0 perspective

In distributed manufacturing systems, the level of interoperability of hardware and software components depends on the quality and flexibility of their information models. Syntactic descriptions of input and output parameters, e.g., using interface description languages (IDL), are not sufficient when it comes to evaluating whether a manufacturing resource provides the capabilities that are required for performing a particular process step on a product. The semantics of capabilities needs to be explicitly modelled and must be provided together with manufacturing resources. In this paper, we introduce concepts developed by the German BaSys 4.0 initiative dealing with semantically describing manufacturing skills, orchestrating higher-level skills from basic skills, and using them in a cognitive manufacturing framework.

Modern restful api dls and frameworks for restful web services api schema modeling, documenting, visualizing

The given paper presents an overview of modern RESTful API description languages (belongs to interface description languages set) - OpenAPI, RAML, WADL, Slate - designed to provide a structured description of a RESTful web APIs (that is useful both to a human and for automated machine processing), with related RESTful web API modeling frameworks. We propose an example of the schema model of web API of the service for pre-trained distributional semantic models (word embeddings) processing. This service is a part of the Personal Research Information System services ecosystem - the Research and Development Workstation Environment class system for supporting research in the field of ontology engineering: the automated building of applied ontology in an arbitrary domain area as a main feature; scientific and technical creativity: the automated preparation of application documents for patenting inventions in Ukraine. It also presents a quick look at the relationship of Service-Oriented Architecture and Web services as well as REST fundamentals and RESTful web services; RESTful API creation process.

A Gesture Interface Description Language for a Unified Gesture Platform

A Gesture Interface Description Language for a Unified Gesture Platform

A Gesture Interface Description Language for a Unified Gesture Platform

A Gesture Interface Description Language for a Unified Gesture Platform

HCIDL: Human-computer interface description language for multi-target, multimodal, plastic user interfaces

From the human-computer interface perspectives, the challenges to be faced are related to the consideration of new, multiple interactions, and the diversity of devices. The large panel of interactions (touching, shaking, voice dictation, positioning …) and the diversification of interaction devices can be seen as a factor of flexibility albeit introducing incidental complexity. Our work is part of the field of user interface description languages. After an analysis of the scientific context of our work, this paper introduces HCIDL, a modelling language staged in a model-driven engineering approach. Among the properties related to human-computer interface, our proposition is intended for modelling multi-target, multimodal, plastic interaction interfaces using user interface description languages. By combining plasticity and multimodality, HCIDL improves usability of user interfaces through adaptive behaviour by providing end-users with an interaction-set adapted to input/output of terminals and, an optimum layout.

NextUI Technique-Based Internet Financial Business Client

This paper proposes a NextUI model through XML graphical interface description language upon the basis of MyGUI open-source model, it achieves the separation of user interface design and business logic, and solves the problem of cross-platform problem as well, which dramatically improves the efficiency of maintenance and update for financial application system. The practical project reveal that our NextUI framework can make the complex financial business UI requirement become simple and fast to complete, resulting in decline on the risk and cost of system development. Also, it has good portability and reproducibility.

Declarative GUI descriptions for device-independent applications

The increasing number and diversity of devices connected to the Internet open new research challenges in the field of cross-platform and device-independent applications. One of the approaches to this problem is the Device-Independent Architecture, which provides application logic and application data device independence. It enables also usage of user interface (UI) adaptation middleware to support application UI device independence. Potentially, device-independent descriptions of application UI can be implemented with existing user interface description languages (UIDLs). In this paper, we present an analysis of eight popular UIDLs that are assumed to be suitable for device-independent GUI descriptions, along with a summary of evaluation results and lessons learned. The selected UIDLs were employed to describe a set of GUI views based on an existing mobile application. The gathered results confirm our research hypothesis that the analyzed popular declarative UIDLs are not capable of describing mobile GUI in a device-independent manner. Therefore, using the knowledge gathered from the reported experiment, we propose a set of guidelines for an optimal device-independent UIDL.

End-User Composition of Graphical User Interfaces for PalCom Systems

In ubiquitous computing, end-user composition allows users to combine multiple single-purpose devices into new, interesting constellations. In PalCom – a ubiquitous middleware – this is achieved without the need to write program code. In this paper we present a solution that in the same way allows users to create Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for such systems without coding. The approach is to focus on presenting functionality in a GUI rather than attaching functionality to manually added components. We see this as an inverted way of working with GUI development. The solution was realized in the form of a graphical editor for a PalCom specific User Interface Description Language. The tool produces platform independent GUI descriptions that can be interpreted on any platform. When compared to another common tool, the presented editor exhibited roughly 10x shorter development times. The learning time for new users was also evaluated with positive outcome, and a scalability evaluation showed that the solution can be used to create professional grade GUIs.

NeoIDL: A Domain Specific Language for Specifying REST Contracts Detailed Design and Extended Evaluation

Service-oriented computing has emerged as an effective approach for integrating business (and systems) that might spread throughout different organizations. A service is a unit of logic modularization that hides implementation details using well-defined contracts. However, existing languages for contract specification in this domain present several limitations. For instance, both WSDL and Swagger use language-independent data formats (XML and JSON) that are not suitable for specifying contracts and often lead to heavyweight specifications. Interface description languages, such as CORBA IDL and Apache Thrift, solve this issue by providing specific languages for contract specifications. Nevertheless, these languages do not target to the REST architectural style and lack support for language extensibility. In this paper we present the design and implementation of NeoIDL, an extensible domain specific language and program generator for writing REST based contracts that are further translated into service’s implementations. In addition, we also present a systematic evaluation of our approach from different perspectives, which involved the implementation of different services using NeoIDL from the domain of Command & Control. In particular, we found initial evidences that shows that NeoIDL can contribute: (i) to bring return on investment with respect to the design and development of NeoIDL, after the implementation of 4 to 7 services; and (ii) to reduce significantly the number of lines of specification when compared to an existing service specification language such as Swagger.

A layered interface-adaptation architecture for distributed component-based systems

The heterogeneous and distributed nature of automotive software systems demands for flexible software components which can operate in different environments. In this context, interface adaptation is a promising approach to achieve the flexibility without directly changing the respective components. Recent work uses finite-state machines for behavioural adapter modelling and code generation. Based upon such a state-based approach, we developed a new hierarchical adapter architecture which enables the separation of global and local adaptations. Dividing the adapter model into two parts results in a much smaller state machine and makes the adapter more independent from behavioural changes of the adapted components. Our approach relies on an abstract interface and adapter model and enables the generation of executable adapter code. A key goal of the modelling approach is the reuse of existing interface description languages and respective code generators. The approach is completely tool-supported and was evaluated for a Linux-based automotive operating system. We show a practical realization of the models using an automotive use case.

Web Service Composition Automation based on Timed Automata

Web service composition is a new direction in the research of service computing. To promote the portfolio, the key problem is to achieve efficient and automatic composition process. We propose the web service composition model based on timed automata. In the computing framework, we design the formal model and its construction algorithm; provide a web service interface description language and composition automation engine. In order to validate its performance, using UPPAAL as the service composition simulator, realized the automation process from independent web services into composite ones. The experimental results verify the feasibility of automatic service composition and the effectiveness of the proposed configuration.

Research and Analysis Process of Android Communication Platform in AIDL Model

AIDL is a android platform to describe the inter process communication interface description language, can simplify the process of data exchange between the format and data code.Research on AIDL communication mechanism has an important significance to the realization of the Android platform interprocess communication. This paper analyzed the AIDL model and the communication mechanism and gives examples to discuss.

A method aimed at automatic landslide extraction based on background values of satellite imagery

The vegetation and soil layers of land surfaces become damaged during landslides. When viewed in remote-sensing images, these post-landslide vegetation and soil layers appear significantly different from the surrounding background. This article proposes an integrated method for calculating remote-sensing indices to extract background information of areas that have undergone landslides by increasing the spectral difference between bare land and other surface features, such as vegetation, areas of shadow, settlements, and waterbodies. Based on the background values of satellite images, the indices include vegetation index, soil brightness index, the first component (PC1) of the principal component transformation of the image, and also terrain data. An automatic extraction model of landslides is proposed based on an improved multi-peak histogram threshold algorithm and mathematical morphology filtering algorithm. Landslide information is extracted and verified using an experimental system built by the Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI) and Interface Description Language (IDL). The experiment includes manually and automatically recognized landslides. The experimental results show that the proposed method not only effectively removes non-landslide and other interference information, but also significantly improves the efficiency and accuracy of the automated landslide extraction process.

User interfaces for smart things -- A generative approach with semantic interaction descriptions

With ever more everyday objects becoming “smart” due to embedded processors and communication capabilities, the provisioning of intuitive user interfaces to control smart things is quickly gaining importance. We present a model-based interface description scheme that enables automatic, modality-independent user interface generation. User interface description languages based on our approach carry enough information to suggest intuitive interfaces while still being easily producible for developers. This is enabled by describing the atomic interactive components of a device and capturing the semantics of interactions with the device. We propose a taxonomy of abstract sensing and actuation primitives and present a smartphone application that can act as a ubiquitous device controller. An evaluation of the mobile application in a laboratory setup, home environments, and an educational setting as well as the results of a user study highlight the accessibility of the proposed scheme for application developers and its suitability for controlling smart devices.

GUIDL as an Aiding Technology in Programming Education of Visually Impaired

Programming education is of vital importance because of growing needs for programming professionals. Even though efforts have been made in order to improve the quality of knowledge and acquired programming skill of computer science students the educational systems are still confronted with rather high failure and dropout rates. There are several possible approaches that can be taken in education of programming novices which are described and discussed in this paper. The problems in programming education are even more prominent in the case of programming novices who are visually impaired. Some of educational problems are similar to general problems in programming education and some are specific in the case of visually impaired students and require a suitable approach in order to be resolved. Several existing aiding tools and approaches are presented in this paper and a new solution in the form of GUIDL (Graphical User Interface Description Language) system is proposed as a suitable mean for aiding visually impaired in their programming education. The results of conducted research about the effectiveness of proposed solution are also presented and discussed.

Accessibility aspects in UIDLs

A User Interface Description Language (UIDL) consists of a specification language that describes various aspects of a user interface under development [1]. Fundamentally, accessibility means that peoples with different disabilities can use a specific product. Particularly, in order to be accessible, a user interface must be perceivable, operable, and understandable for users, including those with disabilities or functional limitations as visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. User interfaces accessibility can be approached through usability. International organization for standardization (ISO) 9241-11 defines usability as the extent to which a product can be used by the specified users to achieve specified goals effectively, efficiency, and with satisfaction in a specified context of use [2]. Accessibility focuses on including people with disabilities as the specified users and a wide range of situations, including assistive technologies, as the specified context of use

An approach to the integration of accessibility requirements into a user interface development method

It is a legal requirement in many countries to ensure accessibility for Web applications. Although there are numerous regulations and standards regarding accessibility in the development of user interfaces, accessibility is nevertheless quite difficult to achieve, let alone to maintain at a high level of quality throughout the development process. This difficulty is due to diverse factors including, but not limited to, the lack of proper development methods, authoring tools and accessibility training for user interface development professionals. In an attempt to offer a solution to these difficulties, this paper proposes a methodological approach for the integration of accessibility requirements into a user interface development method based on User Interface Description Language (UIDL) or, more specifically, on the USer Interface eXtensible Markup Language (UsiXML) framework. The proposed strategy involves the integration of accessibility requirements into design primitives of the user interface development method. This paper focuses on accessibility requirements related to navigation in the Task Model, Abstract User Interface Model and Transformation Model. The application of the approach shown for the SPA4USXML tool also includes a proof of concept and validation of the proposal. The study shows that accessibility requirements included at the design stage in the modelling of user interfaces can be systematized through mechanisms such as new transformation rules and the use of support tools such as SPA4USXML. As a result, the quality of accessibility can be guaranteed by taking advantage of developments in technologies based on User Interface Markup Languages such as UsiXML.

Bridging the gap between a behavioural formal description technique and a user interface description language: Enhancing ICO with a graphical user interface markup language

In the last years, User Interface Description Languages (UIDLs) appeared as a suitable solution for developing interactive systems. In order to implement reliable and efficient applications, we propose to employ a formal description technique called ICO (Interactive Cooperative Object) that has been developed to cope with complex behaviours of interactive systems including event-based and multimodal interactions. So far, ICO is able to describe most of the parts of an interactive system, from functional core concerns to fine grain interaction techniques, but, even if it addresses parts of the rendering, it still not has means to describe the effective rendering of such interactive system. This paper presents a solution to overcome this gap using markup languages. A first technique is based on the Java technology called JavaFX and a second technique is based on the emergent UsiXML language for describing user interface components for multi-target platforms. The proposed approach offers a bridge between markup language based descriptions of the user interface components and a robust technique for describing behaviour using ICO modelling. Furthermore, this paper highlights how it is possible to take advantage from both behavioural and markup language description techniques to propose a new model-based approach for prototyping interactive systems. The proposed approach is fully illustrated by a case study using an interactive application embedded into interactive aircraft cockpits.