User Interface Project

From Omath

The only user interface available at the moment is an antiquated looking command line interface. It has no provision for error messages, 'print' statements, or graphics of any kind.

Eventually we'd like to have something usable. Ideally, the user interface would be written in javascript, with a hidden java applet providing the kernel. Running omath would be as simple as visiting a web page - perhaps even http://omath.org/. At first, input should just be in standard text boxes; later we can think about support for 2-d input. Output should be at html, or rendered to PNG. Graphics should be java applets; if only JavaView were free as in speech, as well as free as in beer, it would be perfect.

At some point I'll describe (ie provide some java interfaces) the mechanisms for talking to a kernel; requesting evaluation, receiving output, error messages, and graphics. There's a preliminary version in SVN (code) (javadoc). Once this is in place, it should be possible to write a user interface almost independently of other development. At the same time, these interfaces will allow for a MathLink compatibility layer; our interface ought to be able to communicate with a Mathematica kernel, and hopefully the Mathematica frontend can be coerced into talking to the Tungsten kernel.