World: r3wp

I prefer the rounded edge tabs used in Rebgui ... but I see windows 
uses squared off tabs

I see that there is a color indicator for the active tab, but windows 
also makes the active tab taller ...

Petr, that's a good idea. I take it into our backlog. We haven't 
thought about it yet.

Any updates for this month?

initial table has been made.

any progress on resizing?

Cyphre is looking into it. The box model may use some enhancements.

I'm still steadily posting screenshots as new features emerge, in 
case you forgot. :-)

Robert - I have further questions towards "skinning", inspired by 
short chat to Rebolek .... what if different platform treat fifferently 
style behavioral aspects? I mean - drop-down under OS-X might behave 
differently from drop-down under Windows. So - it is not about having 
different color here or there. It is not about having different metrics 
to style. But it might also involve different reaction to events. 
I think that can't be solved by just "skinning". We would have to 
have differenct, platform specific stylesheets, loaded upon launch 
of the script ...

IMO this could be doen by using different actors and reactors based 
on platform ID. Either it's all included or pre-processed. Maybe 
it's even possible to load a module with all the actors and reactors 
for the specific platform.

Screenshots are here: http://rebol.hmkdesign.dk/files/r3/gui/

Thanks for doing that Henrik.

Get getting around to checking r3 gui. Does anyone else get the char-size 
needs a value error upon load-gui?

james, it may be that you are running a98 or a99. the GUI will currently 
only run on a97 and below.

Thanks bro. I've just been enjoying your screenshots. I'm so glad 
you're working on this part of the dev!

Yes, well, currently I need to finish another project, so GUI development 
could be faster, but Cyphre and Rebolek are working on it. At least 
it's moving. Proper resizing is the topic now.

Speaking of a97, where does one find that?

http://www.rebol.com/r3/downloads.html

I use this page, replacing 99 with 97 in the URLs.

you have no idea how much time i've spent looking for that. thx

was a fix for size-text in R3 ever done?  IIRC 97 and below returned 
incorrect width values

no, not yet.

maybe this re-working of Morphic (Squeak) rendering could give some 
ideas that could be useful in REBOL's graphics rendering:

http://www.jvuletich.org/Morphic3/Morphic3-201006.html

I meant specifically wrt anti-aliasing, not the rest of Morphic

the developer states that his technique gives better results than 
Cairo and AGG

Well, AGG is good enough imo. Our problems imo lay elsewhere - GUI 
incompletness, GUI look (skin).

... and even more deeply ... the world goes HTML5, what do we do 
about it? :-) (I know there is still place where R3/GUI will be usefull)

Petr, this is just a question of smooth anti-aliasing - very useful 
for scalable UIs - if the algorithm is easy to implement why not 
look at it?

as for the question re. HTML5, I'm not sure what the solution could 
be - maybe an embedded Webkit and a REBOL graphics dialect that generates 
JS?

and HTML markup, of course

the problem is that if somehow JavaScript would be given equal/significant 
standing in REBOL, maybe it's harder to make the case for needing 
REBOL in the first place

Maybe there could be an alternative graphics framework at some point 
that could include WebKit modified to allow for the embedded browser's 
renderer to execute both JS and a REBOL dialect, the value of REBOL 
could become evident by way of conciseness, integration with full 
REBOL (and all the benefits that would bring).

The morphic AA looks nicer though I wouldn't see any big difference 
if the pictures were shown separately to me. Also I haven't found 
any details..just couple of screenshot comparions with Inkscape. 
The author is not mentioning a word about preformance etc. As Pekr 
said AGG have already good quality and imo there will be 'slight' 
visual difference between Morphic unless you start comparing pixels.

Also don't forget there is not only antialiasing in play. AGG uses 
very vell written vector graphic 'framework' packed with features. 
All the new algorithms presented in recent years are still missing 
that part.

But I agree. If Morphic(or whatever else) will offer faster&better 
quality AA it should be possible to write custom rasterizer/renderer 
module(simmilar as the special Flash rasterizer) so it can be used 
inside AGG framework.

here's the thread where he announces the new project and he mentions 
performance to some degree:


http://forum.world.st/The-Morphic-3-project-td2239971.html#a2239971

re HTML5, JS vs Rebol etc. I personally don't want to use Rebol instead 
of JS in a browser. It would just make me feel Rebol is crap :). 
The problem is not in the language (JS is not so bad imo) but in 
the (X)HTML/CSS/DOM design and implementation. That's the real source 
of almost all the Web dev frustration IMHO.

I agree with the headache brought on by the pieces you mentioned, 
but how to get people to transition unless you make it easy for them 
to do so?

I suppose that in an environment like Android, REBOL apps could have 
equal opportunity to HTML5 apps - so the best tech should win.

actually, I find the AS noticeably better.  the steps are pretty 
much invisible even on almost horizontal/vertical lines.

I'm sure the font rendering would be much more stable if this AA 
were used.

Yeah, I find significant difference in the almost vert/horizontal 
lines too, but I guess it's subjective - lots of people tend not 
to notice all kinds of artifacts in graphics, some of which drive 
me crazy.

very thin lines also keep much more of their color , instead of blending, 
which is why I think this AA would make a big difference in font 
rendering.

Maxim: yes the steps aren't visible too much...it looked too blury 
to me but it can be because of the LCD I'm using now.

Subjectivity: yeah, just check some forums about image/gfx filtering..lot 
of flame wars :)

we don't notice detail as much in image drawing, but in graphics 
and slow moving pictures, AA is a killer

in GLASS I had to take AA off in some text sizes for the font I am 
using.   some letters looked bold and some didn't.  On some letters 
with round corders (like S, g, D) the AA changes the width of the 
line so much its annoying to read.

font rendering: this is separate chapter imo..it would be great if 
this algorithm looks as good on text as on the images drawings.

corders=corners

The issue with AGG font rendering is that we are not using the 'clear 
type' like techinque yet. It would look much better even with current 
AA. I believe it will be part of R3 once HostKit is avaliable.

isn't cleartype patented and illegal to use in USA unless we have 
a license from MS?

on the other hand, if the hostkit allows us to use system font rendering 
routines, then all the font issues will be solved.

dunno, but what McSeem did is not exact cleartype clone iirc.

AdrianS: I don't think you can convert the Web people to Rebol easily 
just by replacing the JS in a browser. Better to build some 'cool' 
product based on Rebol with modular interface so people can play 
with it and build own 'gadgets' using dialects etc. I believe there 
are still some 'oportunities' to do it on misc embedded systems but 
first you need HostKit source and fully abstracted Rebol dll versions 
compiled for such systems.

the main feature of REBOL today when comparing to web, today, is 
the  "one language for everything" aspect of it.