Integration of Object-Oriented Software Development and Prototyping: Approaches and Consequences

Although object-oriented application frameworks like MacApp [13], AppKit [8] and ET++ [12] substantially ease the building of graphic, direct-manipulation user interfaces, the level of abstraction is considered to be too low to support prototyping such interfaces in a comfortable way. Thus we implemented a user interface prototyping tool based on an object-oriented application framework. The most important part of a software prototype is its dynamic behavior. On the basis of the tool mentioned above we discuss several ways in which means of adding dynamic behavior to a user interface prototype can be smoothly combined in one tool, in particular combining conventional and object-oriented software. Finally, we categorize user interface prototyping tools available today according to the concepts they offer for dynamic behavior specification.