[REBOL] Re: Bug in Area
From: brett:codeconscious at: 2-Nov-2001 15:51
Excuse the butt in on this thread. I was drawn by the "big problem" phrase
;-)
No major disagreements from me, but I don't think it is a bug. Perhaps just
a design issue or choice.
I performed the following
write clipboard:// mold get in ctx-text 'edit-text
I believe edit-text is the function that handles quite a bit of the text
manipulationbehaviour of VID.
Here's an except from that:
paste-text [
delete-selected-text
face/line-list: none
face/dirty?: true
view*/caret: insert view*/caret read clipboard://
]
This is obviously the bit of code that handles a paste operation. As you can
see, the line-list is deliberately cleared. Also a dirty flag is set. I've
no idea what parts of View or Vid use these two variables, but if VID is
doing it perhaps you should too.
For me, reflecting on this little bit of code, I'd say that VID does not
have some support for programmers to update VID elements programmatically.
An example of support might be an "update" function on the face that when
called by a programmer would do all the necessary housekeeping for the VID
element. VID has focus. It targets a specific need. VID I think is meant as
a simple yet expressive way to create graphical interfaces quickly and as a
showoff for dialects. Not as a complete programmer level framework. The
needs of some programmers goes beyond what VID provides.
You could create your own type of GUI dialect instead of using VID (haven't
seen one yet ;-) ).
However, VID does so damn well, why would a programmer ignore all that
wonderful functionality?
The good news is you can drop to a lower level when needed.
I think that at the moment, if a programmer needs to do more than VID gives
then the onus is on the programmer to learn how VID has been created using
the view machinery and to work within that system. Knowing that it may
change especially if these sorts of issues are pointed out as being
important for using Rebol (a good thing).
No doubt, if necessary VID's target could be readjusted by RT and I believe
they intend more work on it too.
Sorry about the ramble. Just wanted to put out a possible context for these
types of discussions.
BTW,
My road to edit-text started with these two lines at the console:
layout [a: area "test"]
print mold get in a/feel 'engage
Brett.
