Non-Smalltalk content in Pharo and Nautilus

When working with Seaside (or other frameworks) one often works with non-Smalltalk resources
stored within the image (CSS styles, images, ...) often stored as strings within
methods:


myCss
   ^'body {
   background-color: #ffffce;
}'

or

script
   ^'alert("hello from Javascript");'


I also often see Base64 encoded images, or when working with XML a method
might return XML content.

With things like Helvetia [1], the reworked autocompletion/syntax highlighting and new
browsers like Nautilus in mind I wonder if (may be in the not so far future) I can:

   - click on a Smalltalk method to get ST styling and edit functionality
   - click on a CSS content method to do CSS styling and completion
   - click on a method with a form content to display the picture (and not the Base64 encoded string)
   - click on an XML content to browse the XML tree
   - click on an HTML providing method to edit HTML and maybe preview
   - click on a method with CSV to edit the tabular data within a grid
   - click on a primitive method to see Slang or C/C++ code
   - ...

Internally the content can be distinguished using pragmas:


myCss
   <mime-type: text/css>
   ^'body {
   background-color: #ffffce;
}'


Are there any plans to move Pharo into this "not only Smalltalk" in methods direction?

Is it already possible to easily extend Nautilus with "pluggable" custom panes depending on the
method content.

I see that there are buttons on the Nautilus side. Wouldnt it be better to have "Tabs"
with "Source" as default and where I can add my own custom tabs?

Would be a lot of work to provide editors and stylers for all the mime-types or autocompletion
for JavaScript, SQL, ... whatever. But the question is more "do we have the groundwork so
people can built up on it."

Any comments?

Thx
T.

[1] http://scg.unibe.ch/research/helvetia

When working with Seaside (or other frameworks) one often works with non-Smalltalk resources
stored within the image (CSS styles, images, ...) often stored as strings within
methods:


myCss
   ^'body {
   background-color: #ffffce;
}'

or

script
   ^'alert("hello from Javascript");'


I also often see Base64 encoded images, or when working with XML a method
might return XML content.

With things like Helvetia [1], the reworked autocompletion/syntax highlighting and new
browsers like Nautilus in mind I wonder if (may be in the not so far future) I can:

   - click on a Smalltalk method to get ST styling and edit functionality
   - click on a CSS content method to do CSS styling and completion
   - click on a method with a form content to display the picture (and not the Base64 encoded string)
   - click on an XML content to browse the XML tree
   - click on an HTML providing method to edit HTML and maybe preview
   - click on a method with CSV to edit the tabular data within a grid
   - click on a primitive method to see Slang or C/C++ code
   - ...

Internally the content can be distinguished using pragmas:


myCss
   <mime-type: text/css>
   ^'body {
   background-color: #ffffce;
}'


Are there any plans to move Pharo into this "not only Smalltalk" in methods direction?

Is it already possible to easily extend Nautilus with "pluggable" custom panes depending on the
method content.

I see that there are buttons on the Nautilus side. Wouldnt it be better to have "Tabs"
with "Source" as default and where I can add my own custom tabs?

Would be a lot of work to provide editors and stylers for all the mime-types or autocompletion
for JavaScript, SQL, ... whatever. But the question is more "do we have the groundwork so
people can built up on it."

Any comments?

Thx
T.

[1] http://scg.unibe.ch/research/helvetia