For a small prototype GUI, anything longer than one method is too long.

Doru


On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 11:26 AM, Nicolai Hess <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> 2014-09-01 10:20 GMT+02:00 kilon alios <[email protected]>:
>
> Personally there are two thing I dont like about Spec
>>
>> a) There is quite a lot of setup just to start adding things together
>> making quite verbose for small GUIs. It may be just my lack of
>> understanding but I find Morphic much easier to use.
>>
>
> Can you give me an example of this setup for a small GUI?  The examples I
> have seen so far only use some lines of code in #defaultSpec and some lines
> of code
> for wiring up the different models (like onSelectedDo, onChangedDo, ...)
> All of that are things you would do anyway.
>
> nicolai
>
>
>
>>
>> b) I have a deep dislike about the use of pragmas. I know they are useful
>> for primitives that cant be pure smalltalk objects like for example
>> Nativeboost but I still feel they brake the uniformity of smalltalk syntax
>> at least in my eyes.
>>
>> On the other hand having something that can quickly produce guis is
>> essential. But personal I prefer lego-like approaches which is what Morphic
>> uses. As side note I think designing GUI via code is a bad idea, at least
>> in my eyes, we need a designer for that, afterall most of the powerful IDEs
>> out there have GUI designers. Nonetheless wishful thinking is not
>> productive , Spec is here, it is certainly helpful and I hope it continues
>> to evolve and improve.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 10:32 AM, [email protected] <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> When one looks at the implementers of "defaultSpec" (lots of Adapters,
>>> tools), I find it more understandable to figure out how a tool is laid out.
>>>
>>> How to follow what messages are sent around, err... much less
>>> understandable indeed (So, sharing Sean's pain).
>>>
>>> Of course, this is different from inspecting morphs. But it shouldn't be
>>> so. If Morphs where isofunctional with the Adapters, it would be much more
>>> regular.
>>>
>>> It is glaring that the Morphs all have their own little view of the
>>> world with no unified set of protocols, which isn't helping.
>>>
>>> An example: MorphicRadioButtonAdapter
>>>
>>> defaultSpec
>>> <spec>
>>> ^ {#CheckboxMorph.
>>>      #on:selected:changeSelected:. #model. #state. #state:.
>>>  #label:. { #model. #label }.
>>>  #labelClickable:. { #model. #labelClickable}.
>>> #beRadioButton.
>>>  #hResizing:. #shrinkWrap.
>>> #vResizing:. #shrinkWrap.
>>>  #setBalloonText:. #(model help).
>>> #dragEnabled:. #(model dragEnabled).
>>>  #dropEnabled:. #(model dropEnabled).
>>> #dragEnabled:. #(model dragEnabled).
>>>  #dropEnabled:. #(model dropEnabled).
>>> "#borderWidth:. #(model borderWidth).
>>>  #borderColor:. #(model borderColor)"}
>>>
>>> A halo that would outline the SpecLayout bits and pieces would go a long
>>> way in helping people figure out what's going on. A project in itself.
>>>
>>> Now, can we both have a declarative UI and an easy to debug UI? As the
>>> declarative things has its own interpreter and engine?
>>>
>>> Phil
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 9:22 AM, Tudor Girba <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> +1 to both of you :)
>>>>
>>>> Doru
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 9:18 AM, stepharo <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi sean
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  I've been mulling this over for a while, and since we've been having
>>>>>> conversations about Spec's place in our future...
>>>>>>
>>>>> :)
>>>>> Good. This is important that everybody express itself.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> DISCLAIMER: this is a visceral experience I've been having over a long
>>>>>> period of time, so it may not be factually "true" or current, but I
>>>>>> present
>>>>>> it as a contribution, if only by someone saying "you're full of crap
>>>>>> because..." and we all learn something.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The purpose of Spec as I understand it is to both come up with a nice
>>>>>> streamlined UI API, and to make multiple targets (e.g. Morphic, html)
>>>>>> possible with the same codebase. These are both important goals. And
>>>>>> it
>>>>>> seems we've made some progress at least in the first case. I
>>>>>> definitely
>>>>>> enjoy working with Spec's API far more that e.g. PolyMorph.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Spec could be a very valuable application-level tool. If I want to
>>>>>> write a
>>>>>> business application, I can write once via a nice API and deploy
>>>>>> "anywhere".
>>>>>> Life is good.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My discomfort is with making *all* our core tools Spec-based.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I agree this is why I started to write some little tool to be able to
>>>>> browse the system
>>>>> when Spec is shaking.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now when you see the code of the old browser this is not nice either.
>>>>> So we will see and learn. But I can tell you that nothing is curved in
>>>>> stone.
>>>>> We will introduce GT but again you will get the same because GT is a
>>>>> frameworks.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  While it is great from an "eating our own dog food perspective", one
>>>>>> of the great
>>>>>> principles of Morphic is exploration and discoverability. Many times
>>>>>> before
>>>>>> Spec I was able to poke around a tool, figure out how it worked, and
>>>>>> apply
>>>>>> that lesson to my own UI. However, with Spec I find it extremely
>>>>>> difficult
>>>>>> to figure out WTH is going on. Parsing of arrays of symbols seems to
>>>>>> have
>>>>>> replaced Smalltalk code, and each field/model piece of a Spec UI
>>>>>> seems to be
>>>>>> buried behind multiple ValueHolder/Adapter/whatever levels. Granted,
>>>>>> now
>>>>>> that we have e.g. specialized inspectors, we might be able to
>>>>>> alleviate
>>>>>> this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> We should iterate on it.
>>>>> May be another framework will be better in the future
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> My 2c.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Sean
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/When-
>>>>>> all-you-have-is-Spec-everything-looks-like-a-nail-tp4775537.html
>>>>>> Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Developers mailing list archive at
>>>>>> Nabble.com.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> www.tudorgirba.com
>>>>
>>>> "Every thing has its own flow"
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>


-- 
www.tudorgirba.com

"Every thing has its own flow"

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