ex11 widget standardization

[Peter-Henry Mander]

Hi Joe,

Another (potential) ex11 user here. I wonder what happened to ex11 since
the day you mentioned a wish back-end?

I'm having trouble getting the latest snapshot I have
(ex11-latest-snapshot-2004-09-09.tgz) working on an AMD64 laptop. It
works well on a i386 platform with Kostis' HiPE snapshot
(otp-20050202-1824.tar.gz).

Admittedly the AMD64 machine has some niggles, SuSE 9.2 on AMD64 doesn't
seem to be well tested.

I get the following output ...

Eshell V5.4.3  (abort with ^G)
1> erl -pa '../lib' -pa '../unixdom-0.1/ebin/' -s example0 start
Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.4.3 [64-bit] [source] [hipe]

Trying Host=unix Display=0 Screen=0
Connecting to unix domain socket:0
Eshell V5.4.3  (abort with ^G)
1> Port opened sending cookie:
Trying Host={ip,"localhost"} Display=0 Screen=0
Connecting to tcp port:6000
cannot connect reason:econnrefused
Trying Host={ip,"localhost"} Display=0 Screen=0
Connecting to tcp port:6000
cannot connect reason:econnrefused
Trying Host=unix Display=0 Screen=0
Connecting to unix domain socket:0
Port opened sending cookie:

... at which point it just sits completely still.

I noticed this was described before on erlang-questions. Was there a
work-around?

Pete.


On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 13:26:08 +0100
"Joe Armstrong (AL/EAB)" <joe.armstrong@REDACTED> wrote:

> 
> Wow - a user :-)
> 
> Overall strategy:
> 
> 	1) Fix a reasonably intuitive way of programming GUIs
> 	2) Prototype it
> 	3a) *Define* a graphics GUI protocol
> 	3a) *Define* a look-and-feel
> 	4) Implement it
> 1)
> 
> For many years I didn't really know how graphics should be programmed
> Callbacks suck - in early attempts I made
> 
> 	One window = One processes
> 
> With "if the process dies the widow dies and vice versa" semantics.
> 
> This is wrong.
> 
> EX11 convinced me that the correct model is
> 
> 	One process per object in a hierarchical tree
> 	Expose protocols towards the objects and NOT APIs
> 
> So in ex11 *everything* is a process buttons, sliders, entries, ...
> all are processes.
> 
> All obey a generic protocol and a private protocol.
> 
> So all objects can be moved with an Obj ! {move,X,Y} message 
> 	
> Active objects (buttons etc) can be sent functions
> 
> 	Button ! {onClick, Fun} 
> 
> Meaning evaluate F() when you click on the button
> 
> etc.
> 
> Irrespective of the underlying model (wish, gtk, X11) the Erlang programmer 
> should perceive a GUI as a collection of communicating processes.
> 
> IMHO this makes for a highly intuitive and easy to program way of making GUIS.
> 
> << It's rather like the OO way of programming a GUI where EVERY control is
> an object - here every control is a process>>
> 
> 2) 
> 
> Ex11 works reasonably well but not out-of-the-box on all
> makes and flavours of X11 and displays (in particular
> color handling on non 24 bit color displays)
> 
> 
> 3a) The protocol should be something like this
> 	This is a summary of some of http://www.sics.se/~joe/ex11/widgets/ex11.html
> 
>      Win !! {makeButton, X, Y, Width, Ht, Color, Str) => Button
>          Button ! {onClick, Fun/1} - Evaluate F(X) when clicked. X is the mouse position.
>          Button ! {set, Str}         Change the text in the button 
> 
>      Win !! {makeDragBox, X, Y, Width, Height, Border, Color) => DragBox
> 	    DragBox ! {onDrag, F/2} evaluate F(X,Y) when dragged to X,Y
> 
>      Win !! {makeEntry, X, Y, Width, Str) => Entry
> 	    Entry ! {onReturn, Fun/1} - Evaluate F(Str) when return is pressed in the entry.
>           Entry ! {set, Str}		Set the entry
>           Entry !! read => Str   	Read the entry
> 
> 	...
> 
> Win Button Entry DragBox etc are all processes
> 
> !! is an infix RPC. A !! B => C is short for C = rpc(A, B)
>  
> 3b) Needs help from a graphics designer
> 
> 4) 
> EX11 is non portable to windows (ie based on X11) and has certain problems
> in starting up (ie handling non 24 bit color displays)
> 
> I started three days ago (by coincidence) seeing if I could use a wish
> backend to ex11 - this works very nicely, I am half way through the widgets
> and have managed to retain ex11 programming model.
> 
> 5) Volunteers
> 
> I would like volunteers for the following:
> 
> 	a) test my new graphics stuff and help with
> 	   TCL widget programming (any TCL buffs out there)
> 	b) test run my new stuff on windows and package with
> 	   freewrap
> 	c) Discuss and help maintain the widget protocol spec
> 	d) Provide inputs for graphics look-and-feel
> 	e) implement the entire protocols with *different*
>          back-ends (ie GTK/xwwidgets etc.)
> 
> Anybody who is interested please mail me
> 
> (Oh and there is also a sub-project) The Erlang desktop (like smalltalk)
> 
> /Joe
> 
> 
-- 
"The Tao of Programming
 flows far away 
 and returns 
 on the wind of morning."