Another Desktop Job and its GUI Event Analysis

Another Desktop Job and its GUI Event Analysis

When there is a big job to do I really really like Event Driven programming. All around programming work are events, whether that be for web work or desktop work. It has probably increased over time, because of the increased interactivity of the way work is done with computers and how it has to interface with people using it.

What interests me the most are:

• the design of the relationship between data (ie. database needs) and software (ie. programs) and linkages (ie. networking) and environment (ie. platform) and people involved (ie. implementation) … usually the Stakeholders and Development Group and its Software Lead
• software product analysis (ie. software platforms, database platforms) … usually the Software Lead and/or Analyst/Programmer
• data design (ie. database structure) … usually the Software Lead and/or Analyst/Programmer
• the design of the GUI (graphical user interface) as far as components of the interface is concerned … usually the Software Lead and/or Analyst/Programmer
• what events are needed to make these components above useful … usually the Analyst/Programmer
• redesigning as technical problems make different solutions a better fit … usually the Analyst/Programmer and often the Software Lead

The example here is Colour Matching Paint Colours. Pretty clearly the database design is crucial. The interface of the user to this data is also critical, and so a GUI design will be part of the process.

How do you approach this?

Well, nobody can really lay down the law here, because there will be requirements and opinions from many sources, but supposing you can arrive at a GUI component list from these discussions, then, how do you proceed forward?

Sometimes it is easy to forget the events, but the events equate to processes, and, it seems to me, this is what is interesting, and can be a good approach to take. If you are working in an OOP environment it would be useful to have objects in mind as you evaluate a proposed process (or event).

Below is an analysis of the events used for the GUI of the Colour Matching desktop program (Visual Studio 2010 VB.Net interfacing to MS-SQL and/or Advantage) of this presentation. Think it makes for interesting reading (zzzzzzzzzzz) … there’s always one, isn’t there?!

If this was interesting you may be interested in this too.