A Programming Environment for Multimedia Applications

Abstract

This document is a report of the Program Development Tool (PDT), a tool designed and developed as part of the multimedia programming system by the Multimedia Group at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. This report describes the overall project environment for which the toolkit is built, specific requirements of the tool, design and implementation issues. It also proposes avenues for further research. This report is accompanied by two appendices - the User Manual and the Design Document. The user manual is intended to serve as a guide for the novice user. It is also a handy reference of the various procedures involved in working with the tool. The design document describes in detail the structure and modules in the source code. It may be used to update the program code if necessary. The remainder of this section gives an overview of the multimedia project and focuses on the aspects specific to the Program Development Tool. Section 2 discusses the need for such a toolkit. Section 3 describes the design issues that have been tackled by the group. The implementation issues are discussed in Section 4. There are many areas in which future research is possible. These are described in Section 5 for those who would like to continue work on the toolkit. Finally, Section 6 concludes the report by highlighting the key aspects of the project and the lessons learned.