1.1

Scope

This International Standard specifies a software system for description and control of human interfaces to computer input/output devices. It contains the following components.

(a) The Independent Form Description Language (IFDL), a language for the description of forms, which consist of declarations and procedural statements specifying the appearance and control of a dia log. FIMS has specific constructs for the appearance of forms on PCs, character devices, blockmode devices, and high quality printers.

(b) The Form Control System, the runtime component that implements the FIMS model for processing requests from programs and for interaction with a human operator. The FIMS model includes a dialog management system and data management discipline.

(c) A generic (or abstract) interface, specifying information that is passed between an application program and the FCS.

(d) A binding of the generic interface to the C language (ISO/IEC 9899).

(e) A profile of minimal, common devices, one of which shall be supported by an implementation.

(f) A set of conformance rules that describe choices for levels of FIMS and a set of implementor choices that shall be specified by each implementation to create a profile for that implementation.

This International Standard does not define a windowing system or a windowing system toolkit of GUI interface artifacts. Instead, it expects such systems to already be available and it builds on them, adding value to the usual toolkit implementations of such systems.

This International Standard does not define a ""recommended user interface"" or ""style"". Instead, it is defined to allow the style of the underlying windowing system to be expressed.