Interoperable thin client separation from GUI applications

This paper describes the concept of GUI application reengineering with a purpose to detach visualization part into separate lightweight client process runnable on different platforms in distributed environment. Only thin presentation layer of primary application is rewritten and whole application business logic remains intact. Original GUI platform becomes a server platform communicating with remote client locally, or through the network.. Theoretical and practical materials on GUI-application reengineering technologies along with techniques and methods applied in a series of projects are analyzed and generalized. Covered application class is defined. Reengineering process decomposition on distinct stages is made. Some considerations are expressed about bottleneck finding where cut line between thin client and middle tier should be drawn. Several implementation issues are considered including a choice of optimal toolkit for the thin client, distributed event cycle organization, deadlock elimination question, index-based architecture of distributed call routing and some performance aspects. Some performance measurements made in real environment are given for evaluation of the approach effectiveness.