Software Engineering Institute

This paper describes the runtime architecture and dialogue model of the Serpent User Interface Management System (UIMS). Serpent uses existing software systems to create a UIMS based on a structured production model to specify the dialogue, and uses a database approach for communication between its internal layers. The model for the dialogue in Serpent supports simultaneity of subdialogues and presents the dialogue specifier with a model that views data as mapping from the application to the presentation. The database approach for communication between the layers provides a model that application programmers understand well and find easy to use. The approach also provides the power necessary to decouple the application structures from the structures implicit in the user interface.