Integrating and Reusing GUI-Driven Applications

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Driven Applications (GDAs) are ubiquitous. We present a model and techniques that take closed and monolithic GDAs and integrate them into an open, collaborative environment. The central idea is to objectify the GUI of a GDA, thereby creating an object that enables programmatic control of that GDA. We demonstrate a non-trivial application of these ideas by integrating a standalone internet application with a stand-alone Win32 application, and explain how PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) can be used to remotely control their combined execution. Further, we explain how Integrated Development Environment (IDEs) may be extended to integrate and reuse GDAs using our approach. We believe our work is unique: we know of no other technology that could have integrated the GDAs of our example.