precise-simulation / guitool

Easy to Use GUI Toolkit & Framework for MATLAB

GUITool - Easy to Use GUI Toolkit & Framework for MATLAB

GUITool is a cross compatible Graphical User Interface (GUI) Toolkit, UI design, and layout framework for MATLAB. It has been specifically designed to be very easy to use and allow rapid prototyping of custom MATLAB UI interfaces. At the same time it has been developed to be faster and have better performance for complex and larger scale GUIs than the Mathworks GUI Layout Toolbox.

GUITool is for example used for designing and building the simulation interfaces for the FEATool Multiphysics and CFDTool simulation toolboxes.

Performance Evaluation

The GUITool framework has been compared to the Mathworks GUI Layout Toolbox (GLT) by running the included test suite, as for example

runTestSuite( 'nruns', 100, 'pause', 0, 'closef', 1, 'uilib', 'uitk' )

substituting the uilib parameter with uitk, uiextras, and uix correspondingly. The resulting timings can be seen in the table below. First, we can see that GUITool is 1.8-2.5 times faster than the GUI Layout Toolbox (GLT), moreover, comparing the runs for MATLAB 2011a with 2019a it also clear that the MATLAB GUI functionality is currently 2-3 times slower with is also consistent with a previous MATLAB GUI benchmark comparison. To really get good GUI performance we can therefore only recommend using the GUITool framework with older MATLAB versions.

MATLAB GUI Performance Comparison

MATLAB	R2011a		R2019a
Test case	GUITool	GLT (v1.17)	GUITool	GLT (v2.3.4)
hbox 1	0.5	1.3	1.4	1.9
hbox 2	0.7	1.7	2.0	2.8
vbox 1	0.4	1.3	1.3	1.9
vbox 2	0.6	1.7	2.0	2.5
grid 1	0.6	2.4	2.0	3.6
boxpanel 1	0.5	2.7	2.2	12.5
tabpanel 1	1.6	3.1	6.1	3.9
Total Time	5.8	14.2	16.9	28.9

Installation

Copy and add the GUI toolkit source files (.m and .p files from the src directory) to your own project directory, or add a path to to the directory with the addpath command.

Examples

Look at the examples in the source files uitkHBox, uitkVBox, uitkGrid, uitkBoxPanel, and uitkTabPanel as well as the examples in the src/tests directory.

Testing

Run the runTestSuite function from the root directory.

Documentation

Open the included index.html file in a web browser to access the function documentation.

License

Copyright (C) 2013-2019 Precise Simulation Ltd.

Keywords: MATLAB GUI Layout Toolkit Framework

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. License for personal non-commercial uses only, please contact Precise Simulation Limited for commercial and custom licensing options.

2. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

3. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

4. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software developed by Precise Simulation Limited (www.precisesimulation.com).

5. Neither the name of the Precise Simulation Limited nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY PRECISE SIMULATION LIMITED ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL PRECISE SIMULATION LIMITED BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.