IM2L: A user interface description language supporting electronic annotation

The user interface description language IM2L (Interaction Multimodal Markup Language) - an XML compliant language - is introduced and its interpreter is discussed. The design of IM2L is motivated by the need to support the activity of electronic document creation, management and updating in scientific and technical fields. In these domains, annotation emerged as the basic operator for electronic document management. IM2L is a user interface description language in that an IM2L program defines an interactive environment - including its interface. An IM2L program can be interpreted by an XML processor and physically made active by an adequate application.