On Oct 16, 2017, at 2:00 PM, John Baughman wrote: > Thanks Jim. I will take a look at the component. It looks interesting. > > I was aware if the blog entry, but my point in that regard is why. It’s great > that the developer can create their own user interface, but shouldn’t 4D > Write Pro have a built in user interface? At least that is what I expected. > Will it have an interface in the future? Perhaps they are waiting until they > get the feature set nailed down before implementing one.
I’m guessing the same. They have no idea exactly what 4D Write Pro will finally turn out to be. So better to not have a “hard coded” UI that needs to be tweaked all the time. Leave it in the 4D language on a form. Then the programmers, who are probably not the best at UI, don’t have any part of it. But the upside is that they MUST provide commands and a way to build our own UI. I’m sure they will provide one as a component like they did with SVG and the “Progress” component. Then we can take that and use it as is, or customize it for our own purposes. I think this is the right decision. Don’t lock the UI down, like they did with 4D Write. Let it be totally developer customizable. But of course, provide a basic UI that developers can take advantage of without writing once from scratch. > One of the main issues I am having with it is how it inserts images. Besides > the background sizing issue I previously mentioned, there is no way to place > an image behind the text as you could in 4D write. The only choice for this > is as a background which places the image either full screen, pinned, or > mosaic. I cannot put it behind the text and move it around to a desired > position behind the text. For the client I want to upgrade to 4D Write Pro, > this is a show stopper. This is a know feature that they have not implemented. No word if they ever will. But I do remember at a 4D Summit when they first started showing 4D Write Pro they say “we will provide ALL features of current 4D Write Plugin and complete support for upgrading old 4D Write documents to the new format.” They said that. I heard them say that. I also need the feature in my client applications that use 4D Write. Anybody ever heard of “watermarking”? So if they never provide this, I’ll never upgrade. > In it’s current state it looks like I am forced to stick with 4D Write. I think that is what most 4D Write developers will end up doing. For one thing, you have to rewrite ALL your existing 4D Write code. Nothing can be reused. So that can be a real problem if you have code that builds complex documents. I have clients that make extensive use of 4D Write. I’ve written probably 1,000 lines of code in several dozen methods that build 4D Write documents and do things to existing documents. The client has already paid for this. It works great. They love it. Now I tell them, you have to pay for that all over again? Gonna be a hard sell, I think. The current environment will allow 4D Write plugin and 4D Write Pro to coexist. You can migrate slowly and as needed. But if you want to build a 64bit version of your app, then you have to use 4D Write Pro. It could come down to a time where the only thing holding you back from building a 64bit 4D Client version of your app is 4D Write plugin use. So as long as macOS and Windows continue to allow 32bit applications we will be OK. When that ends, then this will become super important. At that time we’ll have an excuse to tell our clients. We have to rewrite the 4D Write code so we can run on version X.X of macOS or Windows. Anybody heard comments from Apple or Microsoft as to when they will kill support for 32bit applications? Tim ******************************************** Tim Nevels Innovative Solutions 785-749-3444 timnev...@mac.com ******************************************** ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:4d_tech-unsubscr...@lists.4d.com **********************************************************************
