Morphic for Dolphin?

Hi,

has anybody ever made an attempt to device a different UI Framework for
Dolphin?

One that doesn't necessarily employ native Windows widgets, or even try
a Morphic framework?

Günther

Günther,

> has anybody ever made an attempt to device a different UI Framework for
> Dolphin?
>
> One that doesn't necessarily employ native Windows widgets, or even try
> a Morphic framework?

Look at the Moen Tree.  It is a remarkable example of what can be done,
and it fits into Dolphin's MVP framework, which is a good thing.  IMHO,
Morphic is a great simulation environment; I just wish somebody would
use it to simulate a user interface :)  Again, the look is largely
irrelevant (and should be easily customized); the feel of the interface
is _very_ important (and is much harder to hack).

As for simulation in MVP, there is a buffered drawing sample that should
get you started.

I would not be in a huge hurry to port Morphic to Dolphin for a few reasons:

(1) a multi-year history of regret over Morphic's use of global vs.
relative coordinates;

(2) the Squeak community is making some serious sounding noises about
switching to Tweak, which might be a better candidate for
porting/adapting to Dolphin - I don't know enough about it at present;

(3) Morphic is a mess, so porting it will result in a mess, and Morphic
does a lot of work that MVP already does with style;

(4) wxSqueak seeks to add an MVP framework to Squeak - we already have it.

An excellent project would be to create an MVP grid presenter/view that
is written in the spirit of the Moen Tree.  It is not trivial; it is
also within your grasp, especially because many people here will be
motivated to help you with it.  If it works, it will get used (a LOT!).
  Once you have it fully integrated into MVP (with selection and action
performed events, optimized redraw, cell/row refresh, published aspects
for the VC, etc.), you will be able to create just about any other kind
of widget you want.  The next logical step would be to create a
framework for such widgets, with in place editing and all the usual
bells and whistles, much of which could be assembled from small tweaks
(subclassing or simply with blocks) of some node objects.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]

I don?t have experience working with Dolphin yet, but these threads
about UI call my attention. I think trying to do something like the grid you
mentioned would be a good project for me (It would take me long time, but I
would learn a lot from it), and doing something useful instead of doing
experiments would be a nice change. I am not sure if I understand when you
say in the spirit of the Moen tree. Do you mean implementation or
look/interaction? My first guess is implementation am I right? Can you
elaborate on this? Thank you.
Mariano

"Bill Schwab" <[hidden email]> escribió en el mensaje
news:cuc131$q90$[hidden email]... reasons:

Mariano,

>     I don?t have experience working with Dolphin yet, but these threads
> about UI call my attention. I think trying to do something like the grid you
> mentioned would be a good project for me (It would take me long time, but I
> would learn a lot from it), and doing something useful instead of doing
> experiments would be a nice change. I am not sure if I understand when you
> say in the spirit of the Moen tree. Do you mean implementation or
> look/interaction? My first guess is implementation am I right? Can you
> elaborate on this? Thank you.

I am mostly referring to the result, but also the implementation. Most
important, the Moen Tree is coded in Smalltalk, and appears to be rock
solid and fast; it is also fits into MVP.  If you could do that with a
bit more pluggabilty and/or extensibility in mind, you could produce a
framework for high quality visual gizmos that are easy to install.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]