This sounds very cool, but I expect this will take a very, very long time to write. I agree with others that it might be best to start from Eclipse and build a QooxDoo RAD system on top of it. I also concur with those who've said that the most time-consuming thing in QooxDoo right now is forms. A tool that would let you drag and drop UI widgets onto a canvas and generate the corresponding QooxDoo code would be hugely beneficial. Even this would be a very substantial project -- certainly beyond what I would expect for a grad school term project.
And I think it will be difficult to capture all the requirements for arbitrary web applications in your tool. The only RAD tool I ever liked was C++ Builder (part of the Delphi lineage). And here you'd be adding even more complexity, because you're addressing both client and server sides. Also, there are lots of other hard problems that need working on, IMO, before such a RAD system would be compelling. In general, performance is a real problem with JavaScript frameworks, and QooxDoo is no exception. You constantly struggle with things being sluggish because the browser JavaScript engine is just so slow -- especially IE. So I might suggest picking a relatively complex aspect of QooxDoo, heavily benchmarking it, and rewriting code where necessary to optimize. QooxDoo already has more such things that other JS frameworks, so it is well positioned in this regard. There also many cool widgets and widget extensions that would be nice to have. Closing the "widget gap" between QooxDoo and other systems like ExtJS would benefit everyone. Dave Derrell Lipman wrote: > > For a many months, I've considered what an advanced, easy-to-use > development > environment for qooxdoo applications would look like. A few weeks ago, > just > before he published it as a contrib, Dan Hummon demonstrated to me his > Tartan Blueprint Designer, and he and I discussed some of the ideas I've > been considering. Although there is overlap, I think his project and what > I > have in mind are towards somewhat different purposes. Dan stated, "I do > want > to stress that, I'm envisioning the designer as a form designer; not as a > full application designer." What I have in mind, on the other hand, is an > application designer that also handles communication with a server. I > suspect that at some point, the two may merge, but having two parallel > development paths right now also allows experimenting with different > implementations. > > Until recently, I've had no time to even begin a project of this scope. To > get it to the point I dream of will be a huge project. Since I'm back in > grad school now, though, I have decided to do a Phase I of this as my term > project for my Human Computer Interaction course. > > I'm thinking of a (partial) feature list akin to this, implemented in in > various phases: > > - View "running" qooxdoo application as it's being built, allowing for > incremental development > - Show dynamically-generated qooxdoo source code (nicely color coded > and > formatted, of course) > - Save work in progress, and come back later to edit further > - Edit properties and events, with API documentation available upon > request or via pop-ups similar to what's done in NetBeans > - Allow for addition of code to provide event handlers and special > processing... with the ability for the additional code to be "attached" > to > an object placed during the design, allowing for moving objects around > and > retaining their associated added code > - Easy use of remote procedure calls. Possibly, even the backend stubs > could be automatically created > - Form processing > - Subclass creation and easy re-use > - Pluggable architecture, allowing for contribs or user-provided > classes > to be easily added and used just like native classes > - Maybe, just maybe, I could even do on-the-fly parsing and flag errors > in the user-provided code, as is done in formal IDEs > - ... > > Clearly, this is no small project. :-) My plan is to make a start on this > for my term project, and before doing so, I'd like to solicit comments and > suggestions from my target audience: all of you qooxdoo application > developers! > > > 1. What do you find to be your most time-consuming or tedious tasks > while > developing qooxdoo applications? > 2. If you could have a tool to handle various aspects of your qooxdoo > application development, what aspects would those be, and what would > you > hope the tool would do for you? > 3. What is your current qooxdoo application development environment, > and > in it, what features do you find lacking and what features are critical > to > you? > 4. Please add any additional comments or suggestions > > These questions are fairly broad and general, but whatever topic(s) you > choose to answer them with, please try to answer as concisely as possible, > and to each individual question. Respond on this mailing list so > discussion > of features can ensue. Please keep the message subject intact: *qooxdoo > "IDE" -- Request for Comments*, which will make it much easier to track > the > discussion. > > Thanks! > > Derrell > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA > is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your > developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay > ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference > _______________________________________________ > qooxdoo-devel mailing list > qooxdoo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qooxdoo-devel > > -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/qooxdoo-%22IDE%22----Request-for-Comments-tp25789918p25792604.html Sent from the qooxdoo-devel mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference _______________________________________________ qooxdoo-devel mailing list qooxdoo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qooxdoo-devel
