How to make a GUI?

I have a Dolphin application which works and now needs a GUI. I tried
pulling down a few likely looking parts from the Resource Browser into the
View Composer and after I had three or four assembled the View Composer gave
walkback.  So I assume there is some secret (not covered in documentation)
way of knowing what parts work with others.  Do I need to buy "The Smalltalk
Companion" to get a few clues or is there some other way?

My application is more complicated than average - it's an expert system.  So
I want to have a file of expert methods represented in something a little
simpler than the Smalltalk browser yet perhaps keep the Moen Tree
hieararchy, a view of the method source, and retain room for a graphic /
video display in case some methods have an associated graphic.  And I'd like
to get enough understanding about how it is done to adjust the display if
that becomes necessary.

Thanks for any help.

Hi True,

> I have a Dolphin application which works and now needs a GUI. I tried
> pulling down a few likely looking parts from the Resource Browser into the
> View Composer and after I had three or four assembled the View Composer
gave
> walkback.

Congrats on a working app.  This VC problem sounds unusual, especially for
only a few subviews.  Without any of the walkback info, one could only guess
what happened (e.g., perhaps your image is corrupt).

> So I assume there is some secret (not covered in documentation)
> way of knowing what parts work with others.  Do I need to buy "The
Smalltalk
> Companion" to get a few clues or is there some other way?

There's no secret that I know of.  The documentation and tutorials give some
good basics and the book has good examples too.  (I have heard that some
people get clues from the book each time they purchase a copy.  I can't
confirm this, having only purchased one, but you might keep it in mind.)  In
general, you choose the presenters for your application based on the
submodels of your application, then for each presenter you choose a view.
e.g., say the app has a list of things, so an appropriate presenter for that
submodel is ListPresenter, and you can choose ListBox, ListView, ComboBox,
etc, for the view.  The Resource Browser is a good place to see these
couplings.

> My application is more complicated than average - it's an expert system.
So
> I want to have a file of expert methods represented in something a little
> simpler than the Smalltalk browser yet perhaps keep the Moen Tree
> hieararchy, a view of the method source, and retain room for a graphic /
> video display in case some methods have an associated graphic.  And I'd
like
> to get enough understanding about how it is done to adjust the display if
> that becomes necessary.

A Moen tree is easily handled with a TreePresenter.  Presumably your
application builds a tree - if so, then it should easily plug in.  A
TextPresenter connected to a Multiline Text can handle the "method source" -
perhaps when the user clicks on a node, the source is shown, in which case
you want to install an observer for that event.  An ImagePresenter connected
to an ImageView can show ... yeap, images.

Hope this helps.

-- Louis

Hi Louis,

Thanks for the info.  It looks like I have more programming to get the
application to support whatever GUI parts are chosen.

Since every Smalltalk has its own GUI builder I tend to stick with the meat
and let others do GUI's - I even had one boss insist I use VW's GUI builder
for hooking up line width menu choices to a drawing goodie and asked him to
demonstrate, he couldn't, so I did it the old fashioned way, using actual
Smalltalk code.  I thought of doing it here but some of the GUI parts in
Dolphin look so attractive I want to learn the "easier way."

> A Moen tree is easily handled with a TreePresenter.  Presumably your
> application builds a tree - if so, then it should easily plug in.  A
> TextPresenter connected to a Multiline Text can handle the "method
source" -
> perhaps when the user clicks on a node, the source is shown, in which case
> you want to install an observer for that event.  An ImagePresenter
connected
> to an ImageView can show ... yeap, images.

So the first step is to pick Presenters then Views then wire them to my
application Model?