Transcript PowerPoint notes for Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Software Tools
5.1 Introduction
• Tools valuable for
– Specification
– Interface Building
– Evaluation
5.2 Specification
• Natural language not sufficient in many cases
• Menu Trees
• Transition Diagrams
• User Action
Notation
5.3 Interface Building Tools
• May be described with different terminology
• Tools provide visual editing to allow quickly
changing interface
• Tools provide interface independence
• Prototype can act as a specification
• Desirable if tool supports cross platform
development
Design Only Tools
• May use simple tools
• Possibly some design specific tools
Multimedia construction tools
• Early – Hypercard
• Lately – WWW oriented
Visual Programming Tools
• Visual Basic
• Others
Development Tools
• Toolkits work with general purpose
languages
• Java
• Javascript
Factors in Choosing Interface
Building Tools
• Widgets Supported
• Interface Features
• Software Architecture
• Management Issues
5.4 Evaluation Tools
• Tools have been created
• Some things that could be measured …
– Scale
– Complexity
– Consistency
– Correctness
– Use metrics
– Other heuristics
End Chapter 5