ZVTM 0.9.4 review
DownloadCurrent Graphical User Interface toolkits like Swing are powerful, generic and portable, but cannot be used for some generic applicat
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Current Graphical User Interface toolkits like Swing are powerful, generic and portable, but cannot be used for some generic application classes such as graph editors, requiring programmers to use lower-level APIs such as Java2D which are more expressive but harder to use.
The ZVTM is a Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) toolkit implemented in Java, designed to ease the task of creating complex visual editors in which large amounts of objects have to be displayed, or which contain complex geometrical shapes that need to be animated. It is based on the metaphor of universes that can be observed through smart movable/zoomable cameras, and offers features such as perceptual continuity in object animations and camera movements, which should make the end-user's overall experience more pleasing.
The ZVTM features a graphical object model that makes the task of creating, modifying and animating graphical entities easier, allows the definition of custom shapes, all through a simple API. The ZVTM also features smooth zooming capabilities (2.5D/zoomable user interface), multiple independent layers inside a single viewport, multi-threaded views, and support for exporting SVG documents.
It has been used for instance to develop IsaViz, a visual browser/editor for RDF that represents models as 2D graphs that are zoomable
The ZVTM is the continuation of a project that I initiated with Jean-Yves Vion-Dury at Xerox Research Centre Europe during my PhD. It was then called the XVTM (Xerox Visual Transformation Machine). The ZVTM builds upon the XVTM and is distributed under the LGPL license (see COPYING for more details) as was the XVTM.
Here are some key features of "ZVTM":
The ZVTM is able to manage a large amount of objects efficiently.
The underlying model is based on the metaphor of universes that can be observed through smart movable/zoomable cameras. Such paradigms:
are useful because they simplify the construction and layout(infinite universes called virtual spaces)
are powerful because they allow to maintain a good perception of the context (smooth and continuous motion/zoom).
Objects are defined by visual attributes such as position, size, orientation, shape and color. When the programmer modifies the values of visual attributes, graphical representations are automatically updated (the programmer does not have to worry about the various painting operations).
The ZVTM features animation capabilities: each visual attribute modification can be animated through various temporal schemes.
The ZVTM provides support for multi-layered views and object transparency (editable alpha channel). Objects can be seen through several views simultaneously.
Since version 0.9.1, different types of distortion lenses (fisheye lens) can be associated with views, thus enabling focus + context representations.
Since version 0.9.2, an add-on module for bi-manual interaction is available (Linux only).
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