[REBOL] Re: Rugby doco - wip
From: brett:codeconscious at: 29-Jan-2002 0:18
Hi Maarten,
> > - What is hard for people is the notion of async programming
>
> Well up I have to admit I'll need to get it clear in my mind to be able to
> write about it :)
Ok, I've been looking in to this a little. It essence it is event-driven
programming. A View GUI application is an application that handles
asynchronous events - user actions like mouse + keyboard. These
events are produced by the user in response to requests (screen
displays) made by the application. A twisted view perhaps, but
reasonable is it not?
View gives developers three features to handle these
asynchronous events:
*event types
*the "Feel" object with its event classification
methods and a dispatch system to call them
*the event processing chain through "insert-event-func"
Rugby handles asynchonous network events and gives the developer:
* a ticket number
*a function to check if a result is available for a given ticket
* a function to retrieve the result associated with a given ticket
Thus a big difference for understanding the two is that:
* View makes an event "concrete" using objects and it dispatches
these events to developer defined functions.
*Rugby "eats" the event and instead focusses on providing a
pidgeon hole (ticket) for the function results.
This means that currently a Rugby developer has to, in effect, re-create the
consumed event through polling. I wonder then, if Rugby provided a
dispatch system, whether it would be more understandable. Please note,
I'm quite unaware of the impact on the Rugby design this idea implies.
What do you think? I'm prepared to be told that I've missed something
crucial and valuable :)
Brett.
