Introduction to the Serpent User Interface Management System

Serpent is an example of the class of systems known as a User Interface Management System. It uses the X Window System to interact with the end user, and is useful both as a portion of a production system and as a separate prototyping tool. Serpent supports the development and execution of the user interface of a system. It provides an editor with which to specify the user interface and a runtime system that communicates with the application to get the data to display. The system then uses the specification previously output from the editor to decide how to display that data. This report provides a technical overview of Serpent, its components, the module used in specifying the user interface, and the editor used in constructing the user interface.