The VUI library contains functions which create often-used combinations of several widgets in one step, arrange them, and set up all required connections and callback functions. These widget macros behave very similar to single composite widgets from the user's point of view, but can often be implemented faster and easier from the programmer's point of view.
The approach is similar to the OSF/Motif ``Convenience Function'' concept [75], and helps to maintain a unified appearance for different applications.
The following examples show some typical widget macros which implement TCAD-specific graphical user interfaces.
Figure 3.8: The periodic table widget macro is a building block
for the selection of chemical elements.
The periodic table shown in Figure 3.8 is implemented in C and is used by applications to let the user select a chemical element, e.g., as bombarding ion species for the Monte Carlo simulation of ion implantation. The periodic table layout has been chosen for this generic user interface building block as it is technology-independent and as the familiar graphical representation facilitates the use and enhances the acceptance.
Figure 3.9: The symbolic PIF browser
In contrast to the C-coded periodic table macro, the symbolic PIF browser bouquet (see Figure 3.9) is generated by a LISP program. LISP (see also Section 4.5) has been proven to be very effective for rapid prototyping new user interface components.
The symbolic PIF browser (Figure 3.9) is a generic intuitive facility on the task level for the selection of PIF objects and represents the hierarchical structure of the PIF file in iconic form. Every PIF object type corresponds to an iconic symbol. It can be used in any step which requires the specification of one or more PIF objects, like for example visualization (choice of attribute to be visualized), inquiry, or post-processing operations.