Implementation of Graphical User Interfaces in Nuclear Applications
As part of the continuous work on improving safety of nuclear installations, new requirements to computer systems and information presentation have emerged. This has contributed to an increased interest and acceptance in introducing software systems in nuclear applications, and in particular in the control room of nuclear power plants. During the recent years there has also been a shift from proprietary hardware and software towards more open off-the-shelf hardware and software solutions. As a consequence of this there is a demand for systems that support design and implementation of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) in this environment. Picasso-3 is a User Interface Management System (UIMS) supporting object oriented definition of GUIs in a distributed computing environment. In Picasso-3, GUIs are defined using an interactive editor; however GUI components can be created, modified, and deleted at run-time. The graphics editor is designed in a way that allows immediate testing to verify that the user interface works as intended. Attributes of GUI components can be dynamically connected to application data in order to reflect some state of an application. The dynamic connection and the behaviour of the interface is described by the user interface designer using the Picasso-3 language, pTALK. Reusable interface components, or objects, can be created interactively using the graphics editor. Objects can be put in libraries for easy retrieval and reuse. The Picasso-3 system is designed to operate in a network environment, and offers a high-level, powerful Application Programmer’s Interface (API) for easy integration with user programs. The Picasso-3 system is based on industry standards such as C/C++, TCP/IP, and X-Windows, and is available on UNIX platforms and Windows NT. The Picasso-3 system is currently being used in a number of different application areas within the nuclear industry, such as retrofitting of display systems in simulators and control rooms, user interfaces of simulators, visualization of data generated by analysis tools, education and training applications, and in human factors research. This paper will give some examples of nuclear applications where the Picasso-3 system has been used.