From: hsieh@bambam.uucp (Amy Hsief)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Graphical Interface Builder:GRAMMI
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:55:07 GMT
Organization: ESL, Sunnyvale, CA

For people who are interested in user interface tools for use with Ada, check 
out GRAMMI.  GRAMMI, which stands for Generated Reusable Ada Man Machine 
Interface, is an interactive, graphical user interface builder which uses 
the X Window System.  It is written entirely in Ada for Ada developers.  
It has the Motif 3D look and feel, plus some very sophisticated widgets 
in the GRAMMI Ada toolkit:  a geographical map widget, a data plot widget, 
a resource manager widget, and a spectral display unit widget.

GRAMMI was developed by ESL, a subsidiary of TRW.  ESL has licensed GRAMMI 
to EVB, the company that sells and supports GRACE, Generic Reusable Ada 
Components for Engineers.  EVB is continuing development on GRAMMI - 
commercializing and enhancing it.  They will be both selling GRAMMI and 
supporting GRAMMI users.  EVB anticipates a release to the commercial market 
in the 4th quarter 1992.  For more information on the release contact:  
Jennifer Lott, EVB, 1-800-GRAMMI1 or grammi-info@evb.com.

We have used GRAMMI at ESL since 1989.  We have developed large scale, 
real-time Ada applications of between 50K and 100K lines of Ada code, 
requiring hundreds of windows, which were build using GRAMMI.  Most recently, 
we are using GRAMMI on one of ESL's major contracts called Guardrail System 1.
Guardrail is an Army tactical system for doing real-time signal intelligence 
reconnaissance.  We used GRAMMI both for prototyping the MMI and for continued 
development during the code & unit test phase.  The GRAMMI-developed prototype 
did not have to be thrown away but was carried over into development.  

GRAMMI has some nice features specifically for Ada developers.  It is 
multi-tasking safe, and works seamlessly with Ada's multi-tasking model.  
Also, it generates the Ada specs for the application code that interfaces with 
GRAMMI.  A pragmatic plus that we experienced is that it allows Ada programmers
with only a cursory knowledge of X11 to create powerful user interfaces with 
minimal coding.  We have between 20 and 30 Ada applications developers now 
using GRAMMI (including a Guardrail subcontractor, IBM.)  If they all had to 
know extensive X details to get their job done, the training time and costs 
would have been prohibitive.

If you want to know more about ESL's experience with GRAMMI contact:  
Karen Mackey, ESL, Senior Staff Engineer, (408) 743-6472, or 
Karen_Mackey@SMTP.esl.com.

For more details, you could also consult the following publications or 
contact EVB for copies:
1.  "An Interactive Interface Builder for Use with Ada Programs," Mackey, 
     Downs, Duffy, & Leege, Proceedings of Xhibition '89, June 1989.
2.  "Achieving Reusability through an Interactive Ada Interface Builder,
    "Mackey, Downs, Duffy, & Leege, Washington Ada Symposium Proceedings, 
     June  1990.  
3.  "Building customized systems with reusable software," Mackey, Downs, 
     Duffy, & Leege, Quest, Technology at TRW Space & Defense Sector, Winter 
     1990/1991.


Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada