[REBOL] Re: VID Extension Kit
From: henrikmk:gmai:l at: 30-Aug-2009 9:10
On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 3:46 AM, G=E9rard C=F4t=E9<gerardcote-gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/8/29 Henrik Mikael Kristensen <henrikmk-gmail.com>
>
>> Hi HenriK,
>
> What a nice contribution.
Thanks!
> Many of us missed such a VID GUI ADD-ON toolset.
> Many new useful features and better overall use added.
>
> Would like to see some Tree like display but already having a true scrollbar
> that works like in others GUI systems =A0is awesome.
> Didn't look to see if it already exists.
I've been thinking about one, but am not sure yet how to build it. How
would the input be formatted?
> Hope there will be some similar tool set for R3 so that what we'll learn
> here will be reusable...
> Do you know about Carls plans for the new R3 VID? Will there be some
> similarities ?
The R3 GUI is very different underneath and much easier to expand, but
some basic principles like NEXT-FACE and BACK-FACE have proven very
useful in the VID Extension Kit, so I hope those can migrate there.
There is also how lists are built in the VID Extension Kit, which I
hope can be an inspiration for how lists will be done in R3.
This is, as the name implies, simply an expansion of VID to make it
feel richer and more complete. For example, the layout dialect has not
changed, but there are new rules to restrict the unruly child that VID
is, so we can lift it beyond the toy factor. :-) There are for example
fixed policies for what to focus in a newly initialized window.
R3's GUI is bound for an overhaul soon to fix the broken layout
engine, so it will be even more capable than it is now.
Another side effect of this kit is that I hope it becomes a minimum
benchmarh for where the R3 GUI should be, capability wise.
> One first comment : The below start address is OK but it differs from the
> one that is included in the preliminary doc.
Fixed. Sorry.
> I really asks myself if the Key formatter could not be used as some kind of
> Intelligent Coder Helper a bit like the Viva REBOL project plans to do.
>
> That is when coding some REBOL sentence the entry point could start, on
> demand, a selective help that would display in a pop-up the list of
> parameters (drawn directly from REBOL's reflection property of the language)
> Some DSL coudl be required to do so like an intelligent assistant would do
> for the programmer but nevertheless it could be a rich add-on towards a
> complete intelligent IDE and/or dev framework.
>
> It's the most interesting thing I saw since RebGui and the Vive-REBOL
> project to help better support and then promote the use of REBOL itself for
> more =A0advanced GUI dev...
The four primary things the formatter does is manipulate the text, the
highlight, the caret and the data part of the face. I hadn't thought
of using formatters like that, but it's possible. To write your own,
you need to visit the vid-ctx-format.r file in the source (link
below).
> Thanks. I can help you to test it and report (in the format you want - like
> in codecure for example) what has to be reworked if you need to.
I've uploaded the whole thing to code.google.com, where there is a bug
tracker. Like this release, it's quick and dirty, so I'll just be
using that for now instead of Curecode. The project can be found here:
http://code.google.com/p/vid-ext-kit/
However, before downloading any code for commercial use, I need to
revisit the licenses. Some files are grabbed from Carl's source
directly and the license may not fit.
> Do you have such a list of known bugs to prevent that you received many
> times the same items ?
I have some bugs listed, but it would be simpler for me, if you just
start reporting. Then I can weed out what I already know in the bug
tracker at the click of a button, rather than communicating "I already
know that" back and forth in mails. :-)
> Do you know if Carl has some plan to correct the known low-level bugs for R2
> in the future, when R3 up and running and more free time comes by ?
Unknown. :-) He could be revisiting R2 for a short while, but I'm not
sure lowlevel bugs will be fixed, unless they turn out to be fixable
in a few moments. Port bugs are unlikely to be fixed. There are plenty
of highlevel fixes available, though.
> When you are ready let me know.
Ready now!
--
Regards,
Henrik Mikael Kristensen
