[REBOL] Dialecting, higher-level gadget components, and complex stuff ...
From: petr::krenzelok::trz::cz at: 20-Sep-2000 12:32
Hello list,
most discussions currently running on our list is dedicated to some
concrete stuff, but as I saw "associative array thread" and tried to
implement some stuff at my work, it led mi to think about following
general questions:
1) I wanted to have some list of person's tasks on main screen, together
with some add button, and pressing an item would open another screen,
with another list with concrete tasks of appropriate person, e.g.:
pekr
mark
boss
pekr->
---> report1 definition
---> report2 definition
etc. Once you press your "Add" button, you can easily add new person.
But - you just extended your 'persons block which you have still present
in memory. Once you start thinking about data storage, data organisation
style arises. Would you prefer:
["pekr" "mark" "boss"], ["report1" "report2"] kind of organisation or
just
["pekr" ["report1" "report2"] "mark" [] "boss" []] nested one?
or would you use objects as Elan does in his book?
In any case, you have to bear in mind you have to navigate thru data
structure, and it would be good to be able to write/append to file or
remove from it (while staying synchronised with memory content), as
writing/saving whole stuff to file after changing one item could turn
into being a little bit inefficient.
Perhaps a little dbms system is way to go?.
------------
OK, let's think about another issues. What about small app in REBOL? The
first aproach - comfort one, - is to use what system offers and is
easily maintainable. So instead of building some custom design, use just
button navigation system. But what happens if someone wants to have
typical menu? OK, we've got 'choose function. If you will look at the
current panel demo though, you will notice it's look&feel is not
conformant to the whole design (although there seem to be some
possibility to influence style thru parameter sent to function) of
panel. The function also doesn't seem to handle block as sub-menu, but
displays each item of block as item of given menu.
Note: I come from XBase environment, where I succesfully used RAD tool
for app building. It made me king here. On the other hand, it generated
lot of code and I was forced to use some rules for my app logic. It was
OK untill someone asked me to do something another way. As times went by
and we switched to Windows Visual Objects, we decided to build "larger"
system, and refused to follow tool logic. So we started to define own
app logic, functions, objects, and what do we use for each new app from
the tool level logic? Just a few lines with general App:Start() etc.
stuff :-)
RT just started to introduce higher level gadgets to /View. We have
pop-ups, we have 'inform dialog windows, we have also calendar and color
selector, each with closed look & feel. We will also get file managers
soon.
I know someone can admit - hey pekr, use what's there and don't care.
But I am used to think about app as one mental body :-) I am just
currently not able to see, if current combination of REBOL capabilities
(VID itself, styles, dialecting) allows us to really easily change/swap
look&feel of component in any consistant way? REBOL's cool, we can morph
function body, we can swap feelings for face-styles and that's the way I
like it. Maybe that's why I prefer separate blocks, but looking at
'dispatch e.g. shows opposite technique of nested information is being
used. If something is nested and reduced, is it easily replaceable as it
would be using reference?
Do you remember slideshow-dialect?
OK, it was great, wasn't it? What about introducing domain (higher-level
gadget) specific dialects? Eg.
main-menu: menu-layout [
styles funky-menu
main "File" sub
"Edit" sub
"View" sub
"Help" [view-about]
sub "File"
"Open" icon1
"printer setup" icon2 checked sub
]
etc. Or just block with actions could exist separately, or .......
What I am still not too much comfort with is we don't use scaling or
other mechanisms to make REBOL/View experience more pleasant to user.
Rebodex or layout demo is more than 600 pixels high. We know certain
resolution, right? Wouldn't it be good to have some switch for 'view
e.g. telling if /View engine should put scrollers automatically into
layout if the resulting window crosses margins of screen?
Anyone?
PS: Bear in mind I am in no way criticizing anything, just asking about
possibilities :-)
-pekr-
