System and method for flexible visual representation of device fonts

• US 20060248506A1
• Filed: 11/28/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Debruin, David, Shenfield, Michael, Goring, Bryan, Luo, Zhong Hai
• Granted Patent: US 8,086,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for developing an application for execution on a target device is described. The system comprises: a processor and a memory for storing instructions and data to configure the processor to provide: a development platform interface for developing a presentation component for output by the target device to a user interface in accordance with a target device appearance definition; a plurality of development platform appearance definitions for configuring the appearance of output of the development platform interface; and a mapping mechanism for mapping between the target device appearance definition and a corresponding development platform appearance definition to simulate on the system the output of the presentation component by the target device.

Claims

1. A system for developing an application for execution on a target device, the system comprising:

a processor and a memory for storing instructions and data to configure the processor to provide;

a development platform interface for developing a presentation component for output by the target device to a user interface in accordance with a target device appearance definition;

a plurality of development platform appearance definitions for configuring the appearance of output of the development platform interface; and

a mapping mechanism for mapping between the target device appearance definition and a corresponding development platform appearance definition to simulate on the system the output of the presentation component by the target device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the development platform interface is configured to define the presentation component to include references to the target device appearance definition and the mapping mechanism maps the references to the corresponding development appearance definition to simulate the output of the presentation component.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the target device appearance definitions and development device appearance definitions comprise any of font, font size, and font effects.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises an integrated development environment tool platform.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a serialization module for expressing a definition of the presentation component for deployment to the target device, the definition of the presentation component comprising references to the target device appearance definition.

6. A method for developing an application for execution on a target device, the method comprising:

defining a presentation component on a development platform, the presentation component for output by the target device to a user interface in accordance with a target device appearance definition;

mapping between the target device appearance definition and a development platform appearance definition which approximates the target device appearance definition; and

simulating an output of the presentation component on the development platform using the development platform appearance definition.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising expressing a definition of the presentation component for deployment to the target device, the definition of the presentation component comprising references to the target device appearance definition.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the target device comprises a wireless device and the presentation component defines a screen output for the user interface of the wireless device.

9. A machine readable medium comprising program code means executable on a computer having a programmable processor for implementing the method as claimed in claim 6.