\begindata{text822, 0} Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Useful toolkit for CSCW References: <8eyHOWG2uQ1T56lUQb@cardhu.cs.hut.fi> ******************************************************************************* From: roseman@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Mark Roseman) Newsgroups: comp.groupware,comp.windows.interviews Subject: availability of GroupKit 1.0 (toolkit for real-time groupware) Date: 30 Oct 92 17:49:21 GMT Organization: U. of Calgary Computer Science We're making available "GroupKit", which is a groupware toolkit developed at the University of Calgary on top of Stanford's InterViews package. It allows developers to more easily construct real-time groupware systems. This is the first public release of the system. We'll do what we can to provide some support, but essentially its available "as-is". Comments and bug reports appreciated of course! We're presenting a paper on this at CSCW this coming week (the paper is included in the distribution). Those of you who are going to Toronto who are interested, I'll be looking forward to talking to you about the system there. The following is an excerpt from the README files: README for GroupKit 1.0 ----------------------- This directory contains the initial release of GroupKit 1.0, from the University of Calgary. GroupKit is a C++ toolkit for building real-time groupware conferencing applications (such as shared drawing tools, group writing systems, group support tools, etc.). GroupKit is provided free of charge, to encourage more reseach and development into groupware applications. GroupKit makes it relatively easy to develop new applications, by providing many "standard" groupware components, for registration, communications, etc. GroupKit also supports several features motivated by groupware "human factors" work, including overlays to support gesturing and annotation, flexible registration mechanisms to support group processes, etc. GroupKit is an on-going research project. The latest version of the software will always be available for ftp from "cpsc.ucalgary.ca". Inquiries can be addressed to Mark Roseman (roseman@cpsc.ucalgary.ca) or Saul Greenberg (saul@cpsc.ucalgary.ca). What Else You Need ------------------ GroupKit is built using InterViews, currently version 3.1-beta3. GroupKit will be updated to IV 3.1 when it is made available. The InterViews distribution is available by anonymous ftp from "interviews.stanford.edu". See also the "comp.windows.interviews" Usenet group. A C++ compiler is also required, which accepts revision 2.0 or later of the language. X11-R4 or -R5 are also required, as are imake and makedepend. The FAQ for InterViews or the InterViews newsgroup is probably a good place to check about specific compilers. Structure of the Distribution ----------------------------- The GroupKit distribution contains a set of include files, source for the C++ classes implementing the GroupKit libraries, and a number of GroupKit based programs. Three libraries (reflected in the "include" and "src") directories are included: gk - this provides core GroupKit classes for managing conferences, communications, overlays (for sketching and gesturing), etc. gk-reg - this provides core classes for building "Registrar Clients" which are programs allowing users to register for conferences gk-ui - this provides a number of "normal" widgets used by GroupKit programs, including a shell, a table widget, string browsers, a static text field, etc. These could be used in non-GroupKit InterViews programs The "src/examples" tree contains a number of GroupKit based programs, both "standard" GroupKit programs and examples: registrar - a program maintaining a list of all active conferences reg-open - a client program to the registrar, allowing users to join conferences using an "open" registration protocol reg-master - a client program to the registrar, suitable for use by a facilitator in a strictly controlled conference reg-slave - a client program to the registrar, suitable for use by a user in a strictly controlled conference deck-flip - a simple GroupKit conference example, making the InterViews deck example multi-user cursor-demo - a GroupKit conference which demonstrates the cursor overlay for gesturing groupsketch - a simple multi-user freehand sketching program monitor - a GroupKit conference component which will monitor the list of users in the conference brainstorm - a simple brainstorming tool, where ideas typed by each user are broadcast to other users vote - a Conference where users can poll other users on yes/no questions and receive a tally of responses Documentation ------------- A tutorial on building GroupKit applications is contained in "doc/tutorial.ps". A reference manual is contained in "doc/reference.ps" A paper describing GroupKit (GroupKit: A Groupware Toolkit for Building Real-Time Conferencing Applications, Roseman and Greenberg, Proc. CSCW '92, Toronto) is contained in "doc/gk_cscw92.ps". An intro guide to using InterViews (meant to supplement the reference manual contained in the InterViews distribution) is contained in "doc/ivtutorial.ps". \enddata{text822, 0}