Visual development tool for Rebol/view

<< I have talked about this before on the list, but no one seemed to even care, so....>> I'm very new to REBOL, being a VB guy by trade. I like the idea of an IDE (it's what I'm used to from the days of QuickBASIC 4.5) for project management and navigation. A long time ago I started on a character mode screen layout tool for DOS, so I've always liked the idea of visual development. What I haven't figured out yet is what the best approach would be for a REBOL implementation. A drag-and-drop layout tool which generates view code containing pairs for size and offsets could certainly be done. Being new to REBOL, I'm struck by the elegance of the View layout engine, particularly in light of how much work can be involved when locations are hard-coded and you have to update a screen later. Once I'm up to speed with REBOL, it shouldn't be too difficult to write a tool to convert VB FRM file layouts to View layouts using that approach. For a character mode screen designer that same approach is the logical one because you have a fixed size screen (unless we write a character mode windowing system as well). Now, if we can come up with a good visual designer that generates elegant layout code, it would be awesome as a teaching tool as well. Trying to visualize the results for Tabs, Guides, and Returns isn't always easy (speaking as a newcomer). Fortunately, it's so quick to make a change and see the results, that it isn't a serious hindrance. Maybe that's why there hasn't been a great outcry for a visual layout tool. Maybe Tabs could be displayed on an edge-bound ruler, Guides and Returns could be just other controls in the toolbox, along with Across and Below. When you add a control by clicking it in the toolbox, it would appear at the location highlighted on the form (which tells you where the next control will appear in the layout). If you drag it from the toolbox, then it would be set with an offset pair where you drop it. Each sited control could have a visual indicator telling you if it's placed by the layout engine or by offset with an option to switch from one to the other. Gosh, sorry for rambling. I'm just so excited by the possibilities I see in REBOL that I'm getting way ahead of myself. --Gregg

Gregg, There are a couple of visual layout scripts. Its just that they haven't been updated since the beta and no longer function. layout.r and haiku.r (haiku is a multiple editor distibuted version so you can see other people make changes too) I did some demos of layout.r at ACE2K last year, they aren't too many languages that could write a visual editor in and still be under 30k. Cheers, Allen K

Odd thing, I just tried a version of layout.r from January (v0.1.7) and it seems to be working fine under View 1.2 Allen K

Hi, Allen, Le dim, 19 aoû 2001, vous avez écrit :

>Odd thing, I just tried a version of layout.r from January (v0.1.7) and it >seems to be working fine under View 1.2

----- Original Message ----- From: "Etienne ALAURENT" <[etienne--alaurent--free--fr]> To: <[rebol-list--rebol--com]> Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 10:50 AM Subject: [REBOL] Re: Visual development tool for Rebol/view

> Hi, Allen, > > Le dim, 19 aoû 2001, vous avez écrit : > >Odd thing, I just tried a version of layout.r from January (v0.1.7) and

> >seems to be working fine under View 1.2 > > Where can we find the layout.r v0.1.7 ?

Hi Allen, I found Carl's Layed.r and DocKimbel's New-Layout.r (an adapted version of the layout function), but not the layout.r you mention. As I work on coming up to speed in REBOL, I'll continue to think about what kind of "designer" REBOL could benefit from. I have a feeling it could be something far beyond the approach popularized by VB, I just don't know what it is yet.<g> Thanks! --Gregg

Hi, Rebolers, Has anyone developed a graphical development tool for View ? I know Carl Sassenrath's Layout.r, but it doesn't run with View 1+, and I have no time to develop a new one, or update Layout.r. --- Etienne

AFAIK no one has. But then again, we got VID ;-) --Maarten

> Hi, Rebolers, > > Has anyone developed a graphical development tool for View ? > I know Carl Sassenrath's Layout.r, but it doesn't run with View 1+, and I > have > no time to develop a new one, or update Layout.r.

I have talked about this before on the list, but no one seemed to even care, so.... Enjoy!! Ammon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Etienne ALAURENT" <[etienne--alaurent--free--fr]> To: <[rebol-list--rebol--com]> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 3:07 AM Subject: [REBOL] Visual development tool for Rebol/view

> Hi, Rebolers, > > Has anyone developed a graphical development tool for View ? > I know Carl Sassenrath's Layout.r, but it doesn't run with View 1+, and I

> no time to develop a new one, or update Layout.r. > --- > [rebol-request--rebol--com] with "unsubscribe" in the > subject, without the quotes.