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[REBOL] Re: RFC: Rebol Framework

From: gerardcote:sympatico:ca at: 23-Sep-2002 11:07

Hi Robert, I have played a little more with Framework and I found this new stuff in my understanding of the App. : 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. 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. Here is how I proceeded - a bit cumbersome but it worked : a- Select the contact/person witht the top left rotary button b- Entering the left search-field with the looked for name Michael c- Activate the left GRAPH button to get more data about Michael - this gives you some feedback that you've got the right person. 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. e- Enter the name for the new OBJECT to be created. Here I typed MY-NOTE-2 and pressed Enter. 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!!!). I completed the Subject and Text fields for testing purpose. f- Finally I pressed on the double arrows button (<>) and it seemed to work In fact it worked flawlessly ;-)) as can be seen by doing the last following step ... g- Press the Right GRAPH button to redisplay the new set of relations. We immediately get a visual feedback on where the new link is located. Again Robert, this is a Great Usable Work to start with. Congratulations for your first FUNCTIONAL step. 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 : 1. Rename the left GRAPH button to display fields or anything other that fits better what its purpose is. 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. However I am conscious this is just a FUNCTIONAL DEMO - and a dawn good one. So please don't comment it - I already took this into account. It's just a reminder for you when time will be plentiful with you ;-)) 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. 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. 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. May be the previous item - relations list text display - could be used to do just that. 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. 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 !!! 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 ? I'm sure you did plan for it, didn't you ? Keep up the good work, Robert !!! Regards, Gerard