My impression was that XWT and Hallvard's model were modelling at two
different levels. At least, that's the interesting part to me (and less
so, it's representation as an EMF model or XML). I admit I've not looked
closely at either due to lack of time (sigh), but at a broad level, I
believe that Yves approach maps more closely to the widgets but is not a
direct representation of them (close but not 1:1), while as Hallvard's is
a more abstract approach which could facilitate higher level UI
expressions, eventually generated down to widgets (even less 1:1).
I'm not sure I've characterized them accurately and if not apologies.
I think both approaches are interested and valid. A close mapping to the
widget structure allows for GUI builders, serialization/deserialization,
testers, etc. A more abstract model might allow you raise the level of
expression of the UI to more functional needs ("I need a list of
directories" vs. "I need a list widget whose content provider gives me
directories").
As a super-minor example, in CSS you can set margins. Our SWT widgets
don't have equivalent API for margins. The way to implement it in SWT is
with a Composite and layout. But my declarative UI likely won't have that
composite. Ideally the widget generation would be in cohoots with CSS and
gen the right composites with layout values. So not 1:1.
Kevin
David Orme <[email protected]>
Sent by: [email protected]
01/27/2009 03:03 PM
Please respond to
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Subject
[e4-dev] Declarative UI in E4
Two things, by way of moving the discussion forward while the IP machine
grinds along:
(The impatient or overworked can read just the boldfaced text and get the
gist of what I'm saying. ;-)
Thing #1:)
My understanding is that our status is that Hallvard's code is making its
way through the IP Review process and onto the E4 server.
In the meantime, I had an idea that might unify the two current proposals.
(If I mis-characterize any of this, please correct me, but here is my
understanding of our current state:)
1) Hallvard's proposal is an XML layer on top of an EMF model that is
connected to the UI.
2) Yyves's proposal is to map XAML 1:1 to the SWT API. He calls the
resulting API XWT.
Here's what I was wondering: Yyves, would it be possible/desirable to
make XWT map 1:1 to Hallvard's EMF model rather than straight to SWT? This
seems like it might be a sensible approach to unifying both proposals.
If the answer is "yes", I'd very much like to play with that and see what
the resulting code looks/feels like.
Thing #2:)
I've been thinking about the ways we have discussed for abstracting and
simplifying UI creation. So far, we have only focused on XML
representation, but I recalled that Andy Maleh created (and proposed)
Glimmer, a JRuby-based UI DSL project. And I've been interested in
translating Glimmer's ideas into Scala.
(I noticed that Boris invited Andy to participate over here, and
regrettably, he has not materialized yet. Since I know Andy personally,
I'll reach out to him and invite him to join the conversation.)
In any case, I want to make sure that whatever we do does not preclude
Glimmer-like things in alternate JVM languages, whether JRuby, Scala,
JavaScript, etc.
In the abstract, it seems like it ought to be possible to map
Glimmer(.JRuby | .Scala) to EMF just like Hallvard maps XML to EMF.
Which brings me to my
Conclusion:)
Hallvard: Any ETA on when we will get to see your code at Eclipse.org?
I'd really like to get my hands on both of these proposals and play with
them. :-)
Best regards,
Dave Orme
PS: Andy: I've CC'd you on this mailing list message. If you're
interested, please add yourself to the list so you can take part in the
ongoing conversation. You know you're welcome here. ;-)
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