Re: What is UIM

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Booth,

You wrote:
>Simon, what is UIM? Why would we want to use it?  Is it green-screen only 
>or can it be transported easily to other user-interfaces?  Is it RPG-only?

UIM is the User Interface Manager used by IBM to handle most of the menus, 
displays, and lists that make up the standard OS/400 interface.  If you use 
a 'Work with' panel you using UIM.  The definitition language is documented 
in the Application Display Programming manual (SC41-5715).  Appendix 1 
describes the language, Chapters 3,4, and 5 explain how to use it -- in 
standard IBM style where the user is expected to be clever enough to fill 
in the gaps.

Although UIM imposes a more rigid screen layout than DDS it also creates a 
more consistent interface.  It is extremely useful if NLS and translation 
is required because it automatically handles wrapping textual constants and 
scrolling if the translated panels occupy more screen area than the English 
versions.  (English is a very concise language and can generally express 
prompt text in fewer characters than other languages e.g., German.)

UIM also supports larger lists than subfiles (as many records as will fit 
in 16MB rather than the 9999 limit of subfiles).  List entries can be added 
(like a WRITE to the SFL record), changed (like an UPDATE to the SFL 
record), deleted (like ... can't do that with subfiles), inserted (can't do 
that either with subfiles).

A panel can be conditioned in a much more flexible manner than with DDS.  
For example, if one uses indicators to hide a DDS field that field still 
occupies space on the screen.  With UIM the field is not displayed at all 
and everything else on the page is reformatted accordingly.

UIM also provides support for command lines, parameter substitution, 
issuing commands, calling programs, translating values, and much more. (but 
no steak knives :)

UIM is green screen only but because it is defined using a tag-based 
language it would be much easier to convert to HTML or XML than DDS.

UIM also helps make applications more modular because you end up writing 
many small programs to handle different functions (filling the list, 
processing options, conditioning, positioning, etc).  It is also possible 
to make generic programs that can use information passed from UIM to 
determine how to behave so one could have a single option processor or a 
single list builder (or indeed a single program to handle everything) 
although in practice having separate programs is usually better.

An application uses API calls to interact with the UIM thus it can be used 
from any language supported on OS/400 -- even CL which can be useful for 
prototyping purposes.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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