From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-12-09T08:37:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Idea: Linux PIM in Ruby

Curt Hibbs wrote:
> Emmanuel Touzery wrote:
> 
>>Hal Fulton wrote:
>>
>>>Then for example it would easy(-ier) to switch later from Fox
>>>to GTK or wxWin or whatever, or even make alternatives.
>>
>>wouldn't it be smarter to have a core which knows nothing about GUI and
>>then several GUI layers ontop of it?
>>you think application directing GUI. how about GUI directing
>>application? seems cleaner to me, but then again..
> 
> I think that is pretty much what Hal is saying.

Yes, that is what I meant.

> I would also like to reinforce this theme: A core "engine" with no gui. The
> gui can then be developed independently or, if you wish, separate (but
> similar) gui applications can be written that all use this same core engine.

In practice, I find this difficult.

To get back to basics: I think the GUI serves as an I/O mechanism.

Sometimes the engine drives (calls) the GUI, to fill a window with data
or throw up a window or whatever.

Sometime the GUI drives the engine: The user pushes a button, and an 
engine method gets called.

Hmm, can we separate these logically? Make two modules or classes,
perhaps?

> I have a longer term plan to create a ruby implementation of naked objects
> (www.nakedobjects.org) using wxRuby, and an engine like this would make a
> great candidate for auto-generating a gui.

I've heard of naked objects, but I don't yet understand them.

Auto-generating a GUI sounds cool but difficult.

Function doesn't directly imply layout, for instance.

Hal