Re: Aida "Visual Designer"

> Hello,
>
> I (yes, I) have been trying to teach a co-worker Smalltalk.  The first
> thing a new programmer wants to see (especially someone from a Microsoft
> VB background) is some interaction and output (click a button, see
> something happen), so I was using Aida to do this since it is so simple
> to do this with.
>
> However, his immediate response was, "If the browser can create
> accessors for me, why should I have to create an "App" class with a
> "viewMain," etc..."
>
> So...I have been working on some code generation for him, and was going
> to create an application administration module, sort of like Seaside has
> (only easier to use!).  You know...select your model, what port you want
> to listen on, the name of your site, which style class you want to
> use...that sort of thing.
>
> Anyway, the natural follow-up to this is to ask the question:  "Would a
> web based visual designer be useful?"  I know I am new to Aida, but with
> a few basic principles to create a parts bin of some kind and drag
> controls around in the browser, it seems like it would be pretty doable.
>  You could attach the app to a domain model and from there attach
> components to aspects of the model.
>
> There would, of course, be some "behind your back" code generation going
> on, and I'm not sure how you would handle fixing things up when someone
> simply changed the code by hand.
>
> Of course, once you've gone that far you could put a workspace, browser,
> transcript, etc... in those prototype-ui windows you have been demo-ing,
> and away you go.
>
> Do you think something like this would be useful, or does it somehow go
> against the Smalltalk philosophy?
>
> Just wondering, because everyone I try to show this (Smalltalk) to is
> amazed by the efficiency to deal with the problem domain but doesn't
> want to give up all their Visual Studio-like features in exchange, and
> because of the framework you have written I think this is actually
> something I could do with a few pointers to get me started!
>
> Rob
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Aida mailing list
> Aida@...
> http://lists.aidaweb.si/mailman/listinfo/aida