[REBOL] Re: Bug in Area
From: media:quazart at: 2-Nov-2001 8:26
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Handley" <[brett--codeconscious--com]>
To: <[rebol-list--rebol--com]>
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 11:51 PM
Subject: [REBOL] Re: Bug in Area
[snip]
> 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.
yep, I hit the wall trying to do interactive stuff... VID and view are
pretty hard to integrate without knowing how view really works... once you
do, though, you realize that's its sometimes less work using just view! but
I still do use VID for the general layout and then insert direct view faces
in the panes of that layout...
> You could create your own type of GUI dialect instead of using VID
(haven't
> seen one yet ;-) ).
just wait and see :-)
Glass is on its way... I have kept it secret so far, but I just had to butt
in... Its so hard to keep exciting things secret... It will use a different
dialect than VID (although somewhat similar) and will also be an exciting
thing to use for those of us who wish to do custom gadgets... some features
include :
-parameter inheritance and re-defineable dialect templates. So each type of
gadget can have its own customized interface within the same layout block.
Although this might sound like a problem it makes the usage of the dialect a
little easier... for example you can change what a string type! does by
default ... the string data might only be used for a dynamic attribute, so
you don't really want it to be put in the /text field... this allows you to
store that string where you want and use it like you want afterwards.
-The parameters are also counted so that you may supply several arguments of
the same type and detect if you wish to use the second one (or nth one), for
example, for a different thing...
-parameter context switching within the dialect parser (similar to saying
origin
in a VID layout so that the next pair be evaluated not as a size
but as an offset...).
-dynamic ui: once the layout is built, it is also running dynamically so
that the whole interface can be resized / changed in run-time and everything
compensates...
-row-column: paradigm, with differing levels of "elasticity" (static, follow
or initiate).
-eventual support for VID layouts... via a special static vid class...
-on-the-fly styling in dialect.
-dynamic toolboxes (define once, re-use at will, link at run-time!)
-on-the-fly support for an external (end-user-buildable) skin file.
-and other even more powerfull features...(I have to limit expectations a
bit ;-)
I hope everything will find its way in the release although some of these
are already planned for the second version of glass.
Its still alpha (of course) but its moving along smoothly. :-) the
inheriting dialect parser is finished. the dynamic layout engine works in
one direction already (once the algorithm is fully functional, I'll just
need to copy/paste it to handle vertical alignment)... and I already have
one beta tester who thinks my work is worth the effort I'm putting into it
:-).
> However, VID does so damn well, why would a programmer ignore all that
> wonderful functionality?
VID IS good. and even with glass I will still use it.
> 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.
And its pretty easy to learn... it took me about a week to figure out the
grand scheme of things... but I'm still finding out new details all the
time...
source and probe are my best friends... especially the "probe first face"
line which I still put here and there when trying out new stuff ;-)
hope I've sparked interest :-)
salut!
-MAx
