Re: [DotGNU]The Abstract GUI

[Daniel Yokomiso]

Hi,

    Take a look at Luxor-XUL ( http://luxor-xul.sourceforge.net/ ) before
writing YAXF (yet another XML format). AFAIK they provide a very rich tagset
with anything you may want.

    Best regards,
    Daniel Yokomiso.

"The limits of my language are the limits of my world"
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Minten" <address@hidden>
To: "DotGNU Developers Mailing List" <address@hidden>
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 12:03 PM
Subject: [DotGNU]The Abstract GUI


> Hi folks,
>
> mdupont and I talked on IRC today about a way to get rid of the toolkit
> incompatibility problem (you can't run a Qt app with GTK) for DotGNU.
Mdupont
> devised a scheme to place a toolkit independant GUI description in a file
and
> send it to the client that displays the GUI using it's preferred toolkit.
The
> following is my implementation of that idea.
>
> First a little terminology:
> AGS: Abstract GUI Specification: the spec (for now this email).
> AGD: Abstract GUI Description: the file that is send to the client.
> AGC: Abstract GUI Converter: the program/lib that converts the GUI
description
> into a real GUI.
>
> The Abstract GUI system is based on the idea that all popular GUI's share
common
> elements like textboxes and buttons. Another similarity is that all
popular
> GUI's are event based. A third similarity is that all popular GUI's use
> containers for layout. That's enough similarity for a pretty decent
abstract GUI
> that will work well on all toolkits.
>
> Now an example of the AGD, simple hello world:
> 1  <gui>
> 2    <widget type="vbox"> <!-- Vertical container -->
> 3      <children>
> 4        <widget type="label" value="Push the button to quit"/>
> 5        <widget type="button" name="Button1" value="Hello world">
> 6          <events>
> 7            <event name="Clicked">
> 8          </events>
> 9        </widget>
> 10     </children>
> 11   </widget>
> 12 </gui>
>
> Line 1 and 10 should be clear, a simple XML root. In line 2 an anonymous
vbox is
> created to contain the label and buttons. In line 4 a simple anonymous
label is
> created. In line 5 a button named Button1 is created (a name is needed for
> widgets that have events). In line 7 it is declared that when the event
Clicked
> occurs a message should be send to the server. The rest should explain
itself.
>
> When this is send to a client the AGC reads the file, and calls
constructors and
> other methods to make it show on the client (or it converts to a native
GUI file
> like .glade first and then calls constructors and other methods). The AGC
> however is not responsible for communication between the constructed GUI
and the
> server, that's done using the normal mechanisms for data transfer between
server
> and client. That means using the DotGNU client webservice library.
>
> Note that there are only 3 basic containers that can carry multiple
widgets (aka
> multi-containers), vbox, hbox and tabbook. All other multiwidget
containers
> (like table) simply use these. There are however many single-containers
(widgets
> that can only contain one other widget) such as frame.
>
> Note that menu's are supported as part of a widget
> (<widget><menu><menuitem>...</menuitem></menu></widget>), but they are
displayed
> at the top if the widget is top-level (non-contained) or if the right
mouse
> button is clicked on the widget. In the last case the menu of the parent
> (container) of the widget is displayed when the widget does not have one
(this
> is recursive, it could go up multiple levels).
>
> Note that not all features or widgets in normal toolkits will be
supported. The
> ground rule for a widget to be included in the AGS is that it should be in
all
> of the following toolkits: GTK, Qt, FOX, Tk. The ground rule for a feature
to be
> included in the AGS is that it should be in at least 3 of the
aforementioned
> toolkits.
>
> The AGS does not know the concept of windows. Everything is a widget and
if a
> widget does not have a parent, well then it does not have a parent. The
AGC
> creates a window if needed (running embedded in a window (like in Forum)
is also
> possible).
>
> And now a short and non-exhaustive list of what widgets will be in the
AGS:
> * Button
> * Checkbox
> * Radiobutton
> * Label
> * Editbox
> * HScrollbar
> * VScrollbar
> * Picture
> * DrawArea
> * Progressbar
> * Statusbar
> * Toolbar
> * Hbox
> * Vbox
> * Notebook
> * Listbox
> * Combobox
>
> Greetings,
>
> Peter
>
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://www.dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/developers


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