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GUI builder for Widgetry

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Steven Kelly

GUI builder for Widgetry

[James replied privately and said there are improvements coming in other
tools in VW]

Thanks Jim. The question however was specifically about a GUI builder
for Widgetry.

One interim solution could be to use the current GUI builder, saving to
the same #windowSpec format as now, and simply have Widgetry able to
read that data format and create a Widgetry window from it. That's the
beauty of storing things as data rather than code (although the current
windowSpec format has enough code-like details in it to make this
tricky!). Since you've promised us 80% automatic conversion of existing
Wrapper windowSpecs to Widgetry, you'll have to build something like
this anyway. Making it work on the fly would have the benefit that we
don't need to re-convert later when improvements are made to the
conversion mechanism.

Cheers,
Steve

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steven Kelly" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:16 AM
> Subject: RE: Widgetry questions
>
>
> > James Robertson [[hidden email]], 6 Sept 2007
> >> At present, there is no schedule or plan to build a GUI
> builder for
> >> Widgetry.
> >
> > At what point are you going to change the name back from
> VisualWorks
> > to ObjectWorks?
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > PS For those who don't know the history: VisualWorks 1.0
> was released
> > in 1992, adding a GUI builder as its major new feature
> compared to its
> > predecessor, ObjectWorks 4.1.
> >
> > For a good description of how frameworks evolve from bits
> of resuable
> > code into visual builders and tools, see Don Roberts and Ralph
> > Johnson's
> > work:
> > http://chip.cs.uiuc.edu/~droberts/evolve.html
> >
> >
>
>

Lynn-2

Re: GUI builder for Widgetry

I'd be very happy to participate in a bounty for a gui builder for widgetry. How much money would have to be put together to get a talented soul to take this on. Lynn

Steven Kelly wrote

[James replied privately and said there are improvements coming in other
tools in VW]

Thanks Jim. The question however was specifically about a GUI builder
for Widgetry.

One interim solution could be to use the current GUI builder, saving to
the same #windowSpec format as now, and simply have Widgetry able to
read that data format and create a Widgetry window from it. That's the
beauty of storing things as data rather than code (although the current
windowSpec format has enough code-like details in it to make this
tricky!). Since you've promised us 80% automatic conversion of existing
Wrapper windowSpecs to Widgetry, you'll have to build something like
this anyway. Making it work on the fly would have the benefit that we
don't need to re-convert later when improvements are made to the
conversion mechanism.

Cheers,
Steve

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steven Kelly" <stevek@metacase.com>
> To: <vwnc@cs.uiuc.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:16 AM
> Subject: RE: Widgetry questions
>
>
> > James Robertson [jrobertson@cincom.com], 6 Sept 2007
> >> At present, there is no schedule or plan to build a GUI
> builder for
> >> Widgetry.
> >
> > At what point are you going to change the name back from
> VisualWorks
> > to ObjectWorks?
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > PS For those who don't know the history: VisualWorks 1.0
> was released
> > in 1992, adding a GUI builder as its major new feature
> compared to its
> > predecessor, ObjectWorks 4.1.
> >
> > For a good description of how frameworks evolve from bits
> of resuable
> > code into visual builders and tools, see Don Roberts and Ralph
> > Johnson's
> > work:
> > http://chip.cs.uiuc.edu/~droberts/evolve.html
> >
> >
>
>