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Since networks continue to grow at a rapid pace and with
greater complexity, to have effeicient network management
system becomes more important than ever. How to make the
network management system easy-to-use is a critical issue
of any successful network management system. For most
existing network management systems, the Network Management
Graphic User Interface (NM/GUI) provides the interaction
between the management system and its users. Traditionally,
the NM/GUI system is built by using the X-window based
graphic drawing tool. However, due to its complexity, the X-
window makes itself less attractive to ordinary users. In this
paper, a script language upon which the NM/GUI system is
built is proposed. This language can be used to either
create a new NM/GUI or modify an existing old NM/GUI. It allows
users who have no knowledge of X-window at all, to design their
own graphic user interface. The script language approach also
makes multimedia inputs possible. A graph optimizer is
introduced. The graph optimizer rearranges ICONs on the
screen to acquire the best graphic layout. Both inter-
and intra- optimization algorithms are discussed.
Then, an NM/GUI system is developed to demonstrate the
use of the script language and the graph optimizer.
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