UI thoughts

Daniel Dudley daniel.dudley@REDACTED
Wed Mar 5 11:44:03 CET 2003


Yes, this is interesting reading -- and well-written, too.
It underlines the required way of thinking when modelling
FSMs, which you will also find in the Libero documentation
(confer the "Visualization tools for Erlang/OTP programs?"
thread--early January 2003--in this mailing list).

And yes, FWIW, I do think this is the way to go in Erlang.

BTW, it is not good etiquette to write private mail on
subjects originating in the mailing list; the contents may
well be of interest to other subscribers -- something one
should/must respect if the the mailing list is to have any
meaning (without which there would be no subscribers). :(
OTOH, it is bad form to repost private mail without first
asking permission from the author. :(

Daniel

"Vlad Dumitrescu (EAW)" wrote
>
> Hi,
> 
> I will take the liberty to resend to the list the mail that Jay
> sent me, because I think it will be an interesting reading. I
> hope it's okay with you, Jay.
> 
> best regards,
> Vlad
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Nelson
> 
> At 04:31 PM 3/4/03 +0100, you wrote:
> >yes, you are right and it's a good way to build an application. 
> >But this will be the next level, right now I am wondering about 
> >how to build the graphical engine and all controls/widgets in a
> >good way.
> 
> You will continue to have conceptual problems if you start
> by building a toolkit of UI "objects".  As soon as you use the
> word widget you have already set your mind in the wrong
> direction.
> 
> 
> >There has to be some kind of framework that will provide  
> >building bricks for the UI. Then of course, a framework for 
> >writing applications will be needed too, bu I haven't been 
> >thinking that far yet.
> 
> I wouldn't agree with that.  What you need is a behavioral
> description of the interaction first.  Just as client / 
> gen_server specifies the protocol completely independent of
> the content. Then you add a rendering capability for
> displaying things.
> 
> For example, don't think of a window, think of interaction
> styles:
> 
> 1) A rectangular area that is resizeable
> 2) Rectangular hotspots like stamps that can be pasted on top
> of a rectangular area
> 3) Hotspots can render chars or change appearance when a
> mouse passes over
> 
> These are all behaviors.  No one has defined a window or a
> hierarchy.  If you want a window, create WindowManagerSupervisor
> (WMS) and pass it an ordered list of items:
> 
> [ [resize_area, {width, 300}, {height 400}]
>     {relative, {name, minimize}, {x, +270}, {y, +3}, [hotspot,
> {click, 
> {send, minimize}}]}
>     {relative, {name, maximize}, {x, +280}, {y, +3}, [hotspot,
> {click, 
> {send, maximize}]}
>     {relative, {name, close}, {x, +290}, {y, +3}, [hotspot,
> {mouseover, 
> blue.gif}, {mouseoff, red.gif}, {click, {send, kill}]}
> ]
> 
> Each of what you call "widgets" can be hotspots.  A hotspot is
> a process that works like gen_fsm.  Mouse click, mouse move, etc
> can all cause an event that means a state change when the
> message is received.  The WMS binds the areas together and
> specifies the drawing order so that you get a flattened view
> that looks like a window, but it is really a dynamic collection
> of behaviors that could fly apart or transfer themselves to
> other processes (think of docking toolbars) or react in concert
> with another process (think slider bars).  Modelling this way
> allows the user to choose the elements of a "window" that he
> would like to keep, instead of hard coding them into an
> inflexible object construct that simulates flexibility by
> varying its internal state member variables.
> 
> As soon as you call something a widget, or think in terms of a
> window and a menu object, you have already pre-disposed
> yourself to non-erlang thinking. Think in terms of behaviors
> only, and implement them with collections of processes.
> What does the user want to do?  Nothing on the screen, he
> actually wants to enter, remove or modify data.  The screen
> is a crutch to see what is happening, audio would work just as
> well, but with a GUI you are pasting on non-Graphical things as
> a way of being compliant with accessibility standards rather
> than presenting the data in the most natural way for
> interaction. What does the data want to do?  These are very
> independent from: How should the data be displayed? or What
> controls allow interaction?
> 
> Chris said a textbox cannot live independent of a password box,
> but classification systems are slippery slopes.  As soon as you
> choose one item to classify on (think Euclidean geometry) you
> have eliminated a whole realm of possibilities that are not
> only improbable, but impossible once you start (a great arc is
> a shorter distance than a straight line -- on a globe).
> 
> Both a text box and a password box are visual displays of
> an internal text string.  In one case the user needs feedback
> as he types, but no display; in the other he wants both
> feedback and display.  The processes that accept keystrokes,
> filter for validity, and store to the internal text string are
> separate because they may be recombined to create other chains
> of events.  The fact that the two screen representations are
> similar is of no consequence other than predictability on the
> part of the user. What is important is the task and the
> feedback.  A password box could just be a single block that
> changes color with each keypress and uses three different beeps
> -- one for characters and two for accept or reject.
> 
>  > One process per real-world activity - the textbox underlying
>  > a passwordbox isn't *really*a discrete real-world activity
> 
> This is the atomic argument (as in physics) versus the quark
> argument.  Do you model physical real-world things, or the
> elements that combine to create different kinds of reality?
> Either is valid, they are just different views but they lead to
> drastically different explanations of the seemingly same
> external behavior.
> 
> jay



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