Front Panel: Designing Software for Embedded User Interfaces [Paperback]

Niall Murphy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0879305282 | ISBN-13: 978-0879305284 | Publication Date: January 21, 1998 | Edition: 1

Learn how to design software interfaces for embedded systems applications that are intuitive for your users and cost-effective for you. Front Panel shows you how to leverage object methods -- even when you are using assembler or C. Take a look at these topics!: - Event handling patterns for graphical and non-graphical user interfaces - Using objects for graphical interfaces - The pros and cons of C & C++ in embedded systems - Using simulations and prototypes to test your design - Looking at the human side of the user interface interaction - Finite state machines & table driven software The enclosed disk contains C and C++ programming examples that show how to structure the data to be manipulated by the user, and how to queue and process user events. If you design and build embedded systems, Front Panel will make your applications more effective -- and more successful. ;

Develop efficient and maintainable software that presents intuitive user interactions. You get C programming examples that show how to structure the data to be manipulated by the user, and learn how to queue and process user events. Includes a discussion of graphic interfaces, and usability issues.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Niall Murphy holds a degree in computer science from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He has designed user interface software, primarily for medical equipment applications, for the last seven years. A contributor to Embedded Systems Programming magazine, his writing and consulting practice is based in Galway, Ireland. You can learn more about the author and his work at his home page www.panelsoft.com. It is the authors preference that his book not be used by the military or the munitions industry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: CMP; 1 edition (January 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305282
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305284
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Algorithms > Data Structures

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly poor, August 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Front Panel: Designing Software for Embedded User Interfaces (Paperback)

This book is so thin on content as to make it unusable for real development work. The actual number of pages devoted to user-interface software design is TINY. With luck, it might fill out an acceptable overview article in a magazine.

All the rest is fluff. For example, I was appalled by the amount of space the author devoted to a beginner's introduction to C++ concepts and syntax. (That chapter is longer than the one on the use finate state machines in UI implementation...)

Finally, the author's approach to the whole process of UI software design is very ad hoc; it's not a methodology at all, and what he does is certainly not "engineering".

A much better choice is Ian Horrocks' "Constructing the User Interface with Statecharts". It shows a reusable, scalable SOFTWARE ENGINEERING approach to UI software development -- something that Niall Desmond Murphy doesn't seem to understand...

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much wisdom in accessable form., December 17, 1998

By 

Doug Coulter [e-mail] (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Front Panel: Designing Software for Embedded User Interfaces (Paperback)

This book covers embedded system design without forgetting the original reason for it -- the user. A truly balanced approach to the problems in this domain. Many years worth of hard-won wisdom about embedded system design AND the users of embedded systems. You can learn it from him, or the hard, expensive way. Fun reading for an "old hand", besides.

15 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 28, 2000

By 

Allen Dale Peterson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Front Panel: Designing Software for Embedded User Interfaces (Paperback)

As a software "old hand" in embedded systems for way too many years, I ought to know better than to be taken in by the hype on this book. But, I blew it. This was a waste of money. The examples are misleading, the text is just plain wrong in far too many places, and the direction he takes in instructing is insulting. Then to cap it off, the compiler he wrote the examples for is very old. I have used Borland compilers since Turbo-Pascal days, and I used BC3.1 for years (still have it on one of my systems), but I would not recommend them today as they have been passed by. He obviously has had experience in embedded user interfaces, but this book will not help novices learn the how, where, or why of the subject in a way that they can use for the future. My recommendation is to pass on this one...