PyMT: a post-WIMP multi-touch user interface toolkit

Thomas Hansen; Juan Hourcade; Mathieu Virbel; Sharath Patali; Tiago Serra

doi:10.1145/1731903.1731907

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Conference proceeding

PyMT: a post-WIMP multi-touch user interface toolkit

Thomas Hansen, Juan Hourcade, Mathieu Virbel, Sharath Patali and Tiago Serra

Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on interactive tabletops and surfaces, pp.17-24

ITS '09

11/23/2009

DOI: 10.1145/1731903.1731907

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Abstract

Multi-touch and tabletop input paradigms open novel doors for post-WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) user interfaces. Developing these novel interfaces and applications poses unique challenges for designers and programmers alike. We present PyMT (Python Multi-Touch), a toolkit aimed at addressing these challenges. We discuss PyMT's architecture and sample applications to demonstrate how it enables rapid development of prototypes and interaction techniques while being accessible to novice programmers and providing great flexibility and creative freedom to advanced users. We share experiences gathered in the open source development of PyMT to explore design and programming challenges posed by multi-touch tabletop and post-WIMP interfaces. Specifically, we discuss changes to the event model and the implementation of development and debugging tools that we found useful along the way.

graphics

GUI

multi-touch

open source

post-WIMP

Python

UI toolkits

user interfaces

Details

Title: Subtitle: PyMT: a post-WIMP multi-touch user interface toolkit
Creators: Thomas Hansen - University of Iowa
Juan Hourcade - University of Iowa
Mathieu Virbel
Sharath Patali
Tiago Serra
Resource Type: Conference proceeding
Publication Details: Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on interactive tabletops and surfaces, pp.17-24
Series: ITS '09
DOI: 10.1145/1731903.1731907
Publisher: ACM
Language: English
Date published: 11/23/2009
Academic Unit: Nursing; Computer Science
Record Identifier: 9984259489102771

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