05-830, User Interface Software, Spring, 2000
Homework 1,   Issued: January 19, 1998
Due: Wed, January 26


Homework 1

Create a Benchmark Description


The goal of this homework is for you to develop a benchmark task description.  You will prepare

A good benchmark would be representative of one or more user interface styles.  It would have components that represented the most important or most difficult aspects of implementing that style, and would therefore be representative of a "real" application of the same style.  However, a benchmark should be implementable in just a few hundred lines of code in some appropriate tool (e.g., 200 to 1000 lines of code). Note that it does not have to be implementable, or easy to implement, in all toolkits -- one of the goals is to use these benchmarks to differentiate tools.

Your benchmark should be different from previous years.  Some of the benchmarks should test different aspects of the interfaces than previous year's did.  Even if you test the same aspects, try to do it in a different way.

It would be best if the benchmark were written in HTML format, so it will be easy to put it up on the web.

This written description should have the following parts:

The oral presentation should

This homework is worth 5% of your grade in the course -- both the oral and written parts will count towards your grade.  Since you need to present the benchmark in class, there will be substantial late penalties: one full letter grade immediately, and 1 extra letter grade per class late. 

Features That Might Be Included in Benchmarks

(Bold shows items not adequately covered by any previousdes year's benchmarks, in my opinion.)


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