Another 2 cents from a developer who hasn't contributed much but has
followed the dynapi2 work
with great interest. I totally agree with Ken about widgets. One of the
reasons the original dynapi
was such a success was that over time Dan built up a comprehensive set of
out-of-the-box working widgets, along
with detailed documentation for each of their methods.
One of the most glaring omissions currently is a menulist widget that is as
fully functional as the original one. I submitted modifications to Pascal's
popup widget last year (on the original SourceForge board) to emulate the
menulist, but those weren't incorporated into the distributed widget. And
frankly, the performance of the modified popup widget in dynapi2 has been so
poor--in the rich implementation I want (see http://www.nsf.gov for what I
mean)--compared with the original (especially for NS4) that I've been
holding off until someone smarter than me has the time to post a better one.
(Note that the widget for IE in the above URL does not show cascading
children because of performance problems on that platform. You need to
visit with NS4 to see the full implementation.) I want a widget that works
as splendidly as the old menulist did on NS4 that I can deploy for IE4/5 and
DOM clients.
In the meantime, I really appreciate all the great work you guys are doing,
and hope you are successful in massaging the new api into a stable platform
for cross-browser dhtml interface dev.
Thanks,
Leland
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Ono [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 8:02 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: [Dynapi-Dev] Widget Development
>
>
> IMO, (memory leaks aside) the quality and availability of the widgets is
> *the* most important factor to the success of DynAPI. People want to make
> cool sites quickly. Programming with DynAPI is a lot better than rolling
> your own portability library (or other libraries available), but it is
> still
> hard and time consuming to get things working on all browsers. An
> extensive
> set of widgets would go a long way to improving development time and
> quality.
>
> That said, here are some thoughts regarding widgets:
>
> 1) I think it would be great if the DynAPI web site allowed user/developer
> to add widgets to a central directory. It would be awesome if the site
> allowed users to upload, run and download submitted widgets.
>
> 2) There should be two tiers of widgets. Standard widgets that are part of
> the official distribution and widgets submitted by anyone. The standard
> set
> of distributed widgets should be expanded beyond what is available now.
>
> 3) I find the FAQ's approach of throwing up its hands about widgets
> counter
> productive. I hope this is a short term time saver opposed to long term.
> The FAQ also states that too many widgets would scare people. I disagree.
> I also think an official tier of distributed widgets and a directory of
> other widgets would avoid any shock if and when there are 100's to choose
> from. Assuming that the widgets are well organized - the more the
> merrier.
> (BTW, I've run into problems trying to make my widget run on a geo-cities
> home page. I think they are doing something wierd to prevent you from
> deleting thier ads.)
>
> 4) The path (e.g. "dynapi.gui.button") should be sort of like a COM Prog
> ID.
> I think Richard is more or less doing this by adding the developer name in
> the path. But the idea I'm getting at is that *any* widget should be
> globally and uniquely identified by such a path and that once a widget is
> "published" the path ID should be constant. This way it will be easier to
> share components and write widgets that depend on other widgets. Right
> now,
> it's hard to be sure what a widget really requires by looking at the code.
> I don't think there's anything to "do" to achieve this except to explain
> it
> in the docs and enforce (i.e. encourage people to use it that way) it when
> it makes sense.
>
> I'll end by saying I think the developers are doing some great work. A
> good, open cross browser API is desperately needed and you guys are
> getting
> close. Keep it up.
>
> Ken
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Pascal
> > Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 6:14 AM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: RE: [Dynapi-Dev] Widget Development
> >
> >
> > I think richard's site is great for that.. it already has a full
> > collection
> > of widgets available.. so if he's up for it :)
> >
> >
> >
> > Pascal Bestebroer ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> > Software ontwikkelaar
> > Oberon Informatiesystemen b.v.
> > http://www.oibv.com
> >
> > > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > > Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Namens Eytan
> > > Heidingsfeld
> > > Verzonden: vrijdag 16 maart 2001 11:13
> > > Aan: Dynapi-Dev
> > > Onderwerp: [Dynapi-Dev] Widget Development
> > >
> > >
> > > I deliberately pick this list to send this msg. to I would
> > > Like to recommend
> > > that any widget code anyone has finish or half finished
> > > should be uploaded
> > > somewhere so everyone can look at them and fix/use them. Everyone here
> > > starts developing things but then they do something else and
> > > we have a lot
> > > of half widgets (I myself am very guilty of that
> > > windowmanager, borders and
> > > more).
> > > If we had some sort of page or site to submit too I'm sure if
> > > someone would
> > > need someone else's widget fix-up the code and resubmit it
> > > there would be
> > > many more widgets and easier for simple developers.
> > >
> > > 8an
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Dynapi-Dev mailing list
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dynapi-dev
> >
>
>
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