Abstract
Due to data-driven application nature and its increasing complexity, developing its user interface can be a repetitive and time-consuming activity. Consequently, developers tend to focus more on the user interface aspects and less on business related code. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to graphical user interface development for data-driven applications, where the key concept is the generation of concrete graphical user interface from a source code based model. The model includes the original source code metadata and non-intrusive declarative language extensions that describes the user interface structure. Some Object Relational Mapping tools already use a similar concept to handle interoperability between the data layer and the business layer. Our approach applies the same concept to handle business and presentation layer interoperability. Also, concrete user interface implementation will be delegated to specialized software packages, developed by external entities, that provide complete graphical user interfaces services to the application. When applying our approach, we expect faster graphical user interface development, allowing developers to refocus on the source code and concentrate their efforts on application core logic.

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The explosion in the use of computing in learning holds great potential for preschool education, and yet information on common educational practices with computers at the level of preschool education is scarce. This chapter shares two distinct goals: first, to provide context for the practitioner by providing a panorama of the information available on actual field practices and recommendations by official bodies from several countries regarding the inclusion of computing technology in the educational practice at the preschool and kindergarten levels; and second, to present a hands-on technical perspective on the matter of immersion of the computer in the daily practice of preschools in the form of a four-way guide, including the use of computer programming in this manner. At the end, a list of readings and activity suggestions is provided to help the reader put these ideas into practice. © 2008, IGI Global.

Abstract
ToonTalk is a child-oriented programming language whose environment is an animated virtual world, with objects that children can pick up and use as in a game, such as birds, trucks, and robots, providing direct child-oriented metaphors for programming constructs. Actions performed by a programmer's avatar with these objects are both code and coding. ToonTalk is a powerful system, not just a "toy" system: it is based upon concurrent constraint programming languages, and programs written in languages such as Flat Guarded Horn Clauses and Flat Concurrent Prolog can be straightforwardly constructed in ToonTalk. However, there is not a specification of ToonTalk, for ready implementation in other environments. We propose that the ToonTalk language lies not in the animations displayed by the current environment, but on the actions performed by the programmer with virtual world objects; we present a description and analysis of the methods the ToonTalk language provides to programmers for expressing programs.

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