Design of an X Window interface for an engineering graphics application

Many application engineers spend a significant amount of time to develop user interfaces for their applications, but most of these interfaces are machine dependent. A friendly graphics programming interface tool is developed by using the X Window system, which was developed at MIT, to reduce the development time and to provide user interface independence for engineering graphics applications. X Windows is a distributed system based on a client/server architecture. The programming interface takes advantage of X Window features such as networking connectivity, menu-driven user interface, machine independence, windowing capability, and portability. PLOT3D, which provides convenient display of computational fluid dynamics, is used to demonstrate the programming interface. This thesis describes how to operate the user interface of PLOT3D in X Window and to utilize the programming interface for other applications. Recommendations for further development of the programming interface and a discussion of the weaknesses and the strengths of the interface are provided.