While where at it, a grid-bag layout manager would be nice.. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Laszlo Teglas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:48 AM Subject: RE: [Dynapi-Dev] Questions of Direction
> Good Points! > > >Finding a way of developing a leaner/more customisable set of widgets is > >something that really interests me, same goes for the animation code - but > >as things stand at the moment I don't feel confident that anything I could > >contribute would actually ever make it into part of the project. > > I would be interested in developing a set of widgets, that would function > similar to the JAVA Swing Set. You know of the generic type: > > Button, CheckBox, CheckBoxMenuItem, ColorChooser, ComboBox, Component, > DesktopPane, Dialog, Frame, InternalFrame, Label, LayeredPane, List, Menu, > MenuBar, MenuItem, OptionPane, Panel, PopupMenu, ProgressBar, RadioButton, > RadioButtonMenuItem, ScrollBar, ScrollPane, Slider, SplitPane, TabbedPane, > Table, TextArea, TextField, TextPane, ToolBar, ToolTip, Tree, Viewport, > Window > > Along with Utilities like: > BorderManager, ThemeManager, LayoutManager > > +/- a few widgets > > NanoFace =;^) > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Colin > Thompson > Sent: November 27, 2001 5:53 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Dynapi-Dev] Questions of Direction > > > Hi all, > > Before I get to my questions I think i should tell you a bit about myself > and let you know what I get personally from this API. To me, playing around > with this project is a hobby, something I tinker with in my spare time just > for personal knowledge. I have no formal web design or programming training, > like a lot of people out there and maybe like some of the other more silent > members on the list I started out with Notepad creating simple web pages for > friends - discovered the wonders of javascript, css etc, DynAPI 1 and maybe > 18 months or so ago I found DynAPI 2 and became hooked. I'm mostly a lurker > who reads the various posts etc and then tries out some of the ideas > discussed on my own personal copy for fun- I enjoy feeling a part of all > this even though I don't take an active roll in it... > > Now maybe as just a hobbyist I'm "sticking my nose in" so to speak, but I'll > go ahead and say what I want to say and hope I don't annoy anyone :) > > With Dan's announcement that his gui widgets will be released as a kind of > 'retail pack' Does that mean that none of the improvements/enhancements > whatever can filter back into the current code and still keep within the > license? > > Also the comment Dan made about nobody contributing widgets back into the > project is a little unfair I feel. In the eighteen months that I've been > following things, no new widgets have been added to the distribution - but I > think that is because nobody has bothered packaging the newer stuff up - it > usually just goes to Richards site and becomes reference material. And yet > some of those widgets are to my mind superior to the 'standard' versions in > many ways. > > I don't know, perhaps nobody has actually come out and said "I think my > widget is better/smaller/more efficient than core widget X, so would you > consider it as a replacement" Or perhaps most of the developers are more > interested in what happens in the event system/dynlayer.js etc to be > interested in adding new or impoved gui/anim/util components? > > Another thing that has been mentioned is the fact that everyone recreates > the gui widgets to suit there own 'style' or current project or whatever. So > what are all the extra components in the distribution for? They get all the > attention - bug fixes posted to the lists - tests on the compatibility > matrix , updated for each new release etc. They will probably even get > documented or have tutorials written for them soon... but why? They are in > effect just window dressing aren't they? Nobody in their right mind would > consider building a relatively complex interface that uses button.js or > list.js etc it would be huge! > > Would it not be more useful to break off the core API as it is now into a > seperate zip file? ie release the core components (api & events) as one zip > file - perhaps the animation stuff as another and then the gui components as > yet another? That way the people that want to concentrate on the core (Jordi > etc) will carry on with what they do best, releasing an updated engine - and > it leaves things open for some of us to 'give back' by way of gui components > etc. As things are now I think most of the regulars download a 130k zipfile > and then throw about 90k away. > > The DynAPI homepage could become a repository for all kinds of different > extensions to the core - you could go and download the latest dynapi.zip and > then choose danwidgets.zip or tinywidgets.zip, or whatever suits what your > working on and they would all benefit from being enhanced/supported as part > of the over all DynAPI. > > Finding a way of developing a leaner/more customisable set of widgets is > something that really interests me, same goes for the animation code - but > as things stand at the moment I don't feel confident that anything I could > contribute would actually ever make it into part of the project. We have the > same old widgets we have always had and that seems to be the way of things. > Sure I could go ahead and release some code on a corner of the web > someplace, maybe even do the same as Michael Pemberton or Pascal and make > another distro -but as I said, I'm a hobbyist and don't have the benefit of > browser X and OS Y to test everything on, so anything I released outside the > project would probably just 'fall by the wayside' so to speak. > > There seems to be a plan/design for the core elements but everything else > seems to be tacked on to that. Would anyone be interested in working with me > in actually laying down a draft or plan of what could become a replacement > for some of those components? I suspect that most of you out there think 'I > can improve that' about some of the code - why don't we tackle it properly > with a coherent design plan so that people can actually download and use > some gui widgets 'out of the box' instead of reinventing the wheel so much. > > Sorry for the length of the post - I got carried away. :) > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Dynapi-Dev mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Dynapi-Dev mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ _______________________________________________ Dynapi-Dev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
