[REBOL] Re: RebGUI or GLayout
From: gchillemi::aliceposta::it at: 16-Dec-2007 15:58
> what is the objectivity here? One user deciding what Gfx
> toolset to use.
> If I would be author of some toolkit, I would try being
> honest with others, and weight my possibilities. Because
> clearly - Glayout is imo not alternative to "typical" GUI app
> development. RebGUI is well documented, used by many,
> supported, and imo is right way to go with R2.
> I know Max for all those years and I know he is kind of
> innovative guy creating close-to-science stuff. But - if some
> user is weighting alternatives, in fact my "warning" message
> could be fair to that user, while maybe not being all that
> fair to Max. It is always easier to write how my own tool is
> better in various single aspects than the other tool.
> If you write it that way, you might let others with the
> impression, that you can't live without that stuff and you
> wait for upper layers as Glass for 4 or so years already?
Petr, I am here to understand the varius points of view and make a choice.
Your statements let me understand that Glayout upper level (STEEL as I have
understood) is far from being complete and the other modules of steel
(Liquid, SLIM and SLIM linker, to me the most important of the trio seems
Liquid) are in this situation too.
As I am in the Rebol world since a lot of time, I have read and respect Max
but also I have seen that his site and (maybe) the project is stopped since
july 2004.
I have made a couple of scenarios about the real situation:
- Glayout and Steel are going on but the developer has its how problem and
lack of time to complete the web site.
- Glayout and steel are stopped and it would be dangerous to use this
software in my projects.
The second scenario is the worst case and I would totally discard his
software.
The first one requires a deeper evalutation. My point of view is made of:
functionality of his system for my purpose, documentation and support the
end user are the basic requirement to adopt Glayout and the other steel
tools in my project.
Functionalities: Glayout is a Stylesheet system used to arrange and display
VID styles (Excuse me if I use wrong terminology), resize windows and
rearrange the GUI lements. It extends VID in some ways but one must is and
expert programmer to add other components. Liquid syncronizes VID with the
inner data displayed. The other parts of steel have no use for me.
RebGUI instead replaces VID and offers new "Styles".
If I need "only" resizing, data syncronizing, stylesheets, modal menus and
VID has everything Steel/Glayout/Liquid is the way to go (the discussion
about documentation and support remains open). Otherwise RebGUI is the way
to go.
I want to forget Rebol 3 has I have already written. When it will be ready
I'll look at its implementation. I won't ask the question about why Glayout
has not been adopted in Rebol3 despite the fact I am onlooker. Howerver I
whish to congratulate with Max for his work now that I know more and hope
(but probably won't) extend the documentation and update his site. There is
still _AT LEAST_ one and half year before we will have a stable R3 and guy
system and STEEL would be a treasure in a drawer if it is usable but not
documented.
A last note: if developers had worked together creating RebGUI +
Steel/Glayout probably we would have now a really powerfull GUI System. Hope
the future will see many cooperative projects than developers working alone.
Giuseppe Chillemi
