[REBOL] Re: RFC: Rebol Framework
From: robert:muench:robertmuench at: 25-Sep-2002 13:38
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [rebol-bounce--rebol--com] [mailto:[rebol-bounce--rebol--com]]
> On Behalf Of Gerard Cote
> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 5:08 PM
> To: [rebol-list--rebol--com]
> Subject: [REBOL] Re: RFC: Rebol Framework
> 1. I tried to look if there was some symmetry in the use of
> the left and right GRAPH buttons. Answer is NO. The right GRAPH
> button can ONLY display the RELATIONS-LIST graph and it never
> permits the user to create a new OBJECT like the left GRAPH button
> does.
Hi, ok here are some clarifications:
1. The graph button has nothing to do with creating new objects.
2. The graph button on the left side has no functionality yet. It can be
added by some chars and I will do it.
3. New objects are created by the <-> BUTTON (this will be changed in
the next version, it's just a quick hack) if you didn't searched an
existing record first.
> 2. I also tried to create and relate a new OBJECT to one that
> I know of that already exists - For example, I tried to create
> a new note named MY-NOTE-2 and relate it to the contact/person
> named Michael.
Ok, that's possible.
> a- Select the contact/person witht the top left rotary button
This step isn't necessary, the correct BO reference will be found if you
do a search.
> b- Entering the left search-field with the looked
> for name Michael
Correct.
> c- Activate the left GRAPH button to get more data about Michael
Ok, now you can see the relations.
> d- With the top right rotary button, select the
> desired type of OBJECT to create. Here I selected a NOTE
> because I want to Relate/Associate a new NOTE with Michael.
Correct.
> e- Enter the name for the new OBJECT to be created. Here I typed
> MY-NOTE-2 and pressed Enter.
Correct.
> The Framework answered by letting me see a new EMPTY Attributes-list
> related with a new NOTE OBJECT. The Fields now displayed on
> this list are the ones I have already seen in the
> OBJECT-TEMPLATE-LIST.R data file : Id, Subject, Text, _created and
> _updated. Note that of these 5 fields only the last 4 can be edited
> since the Id is supposed to be allocated in a UNIQUE way by the server
> App (according to your SPECS!!!).
Correct. This all is just debugging output for me.
> f- Finally I pressed on the double arrows button (<>) and it seemed
> to work.
Right. Now the new record is created AND the new relation is created and
stored.
> In fact it worked flawlessly ;-)) as can be seen by doing the last
> following step ...
Great :-))
> g- Press the Right GRAPH button to redisplay the new set of relations.
:-)) That's how it should work.
> Again Robert, this is a Great Usable Work to start with.
> Congratulations for your first FUNCTIONAL step.
Thanks, even if it took us some time to get it done for you all.
> However before going further, could you take into account the
> following suggestions - may be this will start more remarks
> done by the future readers of your Framework :
Yes, of course.
> 1. Rename the left GRAPH button to display fields or anything
> other that fits better what its purpose is.
How about "Layout", "Graphlayout", "Relationgraph"?
> 2. Even if the creation is working, it's much based on
> intuition and even if this a natural way to do, this would
> request more feedback in the way that creation has been
> done correctly - and this should be received at the
> same time the creation process is tried - or just after
> but the user should have nothing to request more to get
> this information. for the moment we have to request a
> new GRAPH display.
Yes, I will add "save", "delete" buttons.
> 3. The process would seem more natural to me if we also used
> the left part for the creation part of a new
> OBJECT instead of using the right part - but I
> understand that after the creation process is exhausted we have
> to get the new OBJECT on the right side for adding the
> relation with another OBJECT located in the left pane.
> May be you are right to do so but as I said before the
> creation process seems a bit unconventional to use.
Yes, this is still to-be-determined. The problem is that if we get
devided sub-graphs, the layout won't be that easy and nice at the
moment. So I want to asure that we have a connected graph. Anyway,
that's something to work on.
> 4. May be you could add some list for displaying in text mode
> the actual relations existing between the OBJECT located in the left
> pane - this could be used before and after a new addition is done
> for a quick check.
Hmm... How about doing a three-pane. Left and right and below where the
graph is drawn. After adding new relations to an object we could just
show the relations for the master object in the first level.
> 5. I am sure that you will find some nice way to get any relation
> existing between any 2 OBJECTS out of the list of relations.
Yep, I'm thinking about this. This won't be easy, we will see...
> Much like the Easy VID User Interface can be used to
> start launching of example CODE, may be this approach
> could be used here too to Add, Edit, Delete the OBJECTS
> and their RELATIONS.
The idea is, that you can click a node and will get the data-record on
the left or right side. There you can edit the object, add new relations
etc. You can right click the node and now the framework will offer you
only those functions that make sense in the context of
data-field-content, relations etc.
> Please think of it. some similar way of doing things
> could be a very nice approach to suggest for any new tool
> creator using REBOL ;-)) When it applies to the
> situation at hand for sure !!!
That's the idea! For example: I'm using the bug-reporter reblet of IOS
for my make-doc-pro stuff. I would like to move this data into my
framework, add the object-definition and voila we have added a
bug-reporter functionality to it.
> Other than that I don't really know about how my new RELATION
> was added since when I asked for the original files
> (Objects-list.r and Relation-list.r), none of them was
> modified. So you must have created them dynamically in memory
> but did you plan to do an update when going out of the App ?
Yes, the files are written back to disk if you exit the application. So
everything is persistent (that's how it should work). Robert
