[Perl-widget-developer] Re: Real Widgets and Template Languages

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Gang,

First, a reminder to sign up on perl-widget-developer if you want to keep
up with this thread.  Already there are posts going there that are *not*
going to modperl.

   http://sourceforge.net/projects/perl-widget

We have achieved Milestones 1 and 2.

  * Milestone 1 - a proof of concept prototype of code
  * Milestone 2 - a SourceForge project set up for it

...
>Then given the assumption that those objects are simple, many more people 
>can implement them. If I have to be concerned about a lot of stuff 
>everytime I make a widget like multilingual support hooks and event hooks 
>then I will never write a widget because I don't have time.
>
>This is why I want widgets to be tiny and atomic. Let's make it simple. If 
>you want multilingual can there be some way of making the multilingual 
>features a wrapper around existing atomic widgets? Same for events and 
>other such expert features.
...

It is absolutely my intent to satisfy the minimalist's needs.
Gunther intends to use these widgets in a simple and elegant way which
represents how *many* people will first use the Perl Widget Library.

I promise that simple widgets will be simple to write.
Frankly, complex widgets will be pretty simple to write.

I want a module that fits into people's *existing* software.  After that,
they may find it valuable to expand and use the other features.

I envision the following four user-driven Milestones.
(Real users, real value!)
If we satisfy the first-round needs of Gunther, Jay, and Stephen,
we will have a set of software which meets many of your needs out there.

<Please do *not* discuss this post on the modperl list, only on
perl-widget-developer.>

I also don't want to put a lot of emphasis on what feature is in what
release.  Essentially, this is my attack plan.  Any of you are free to 
accelerate the development of one or another feature.

  o Milestone 3: get it ready for Gunther Birzniek's needs
    x get HTML generation of Pods working to own site
    x get rid of -w warnings in cgi-bin/cgiexample
    o add named-parameters to constructors: Controller, State, Config
    o add named-parameter, "state_args" => $cgi
    o resolve $widget->value() and $widget->values()
    * When Gunther is happily using the PWL in his application, we will
      consider this milestone achieved.
    * Gunther, I am close to a release that I think will be usable to you.
      I may then need you to write a Widget::Config::Extropia or whatever
      and give me feedback on what sucked about the API.
      After that I need you to come up with a detailed checklist of changes
      that need to be made to achieve the milestone.
      (Of course we will discuss it all on the perl-widget-developer mailing
      list.)

  o Milestone 4: internationalization for Jay Lawrence's needs
    o incorporate concepts of internationalization (string lookup)
    o add Widget::HTML::TextLabel (?) widget with internationalization
abilities
    o add Widget::HTML::Money (?) widget with internationalization abilities
    * When Jay is happily using the PWL in his application, we will
      consider this milestone achieved.
    * Jay, same for you as for Gunther.  I just put his milestone before yours
      because I want to make the simple things simple.  But of course we
will be
      working on it all at the same time.

  o Milestone 5: enhance the vision for Stephen Adkins' needs
    o add Widget::HTML::Template widget
    o add Widget::HTML::DualOrderedMultiSelect widget
    o incorporate a "parent" concept into widgets, and event bubbling
    o incorporate concept of browser sensitivity
    o add support for Javascript in the <head>
    o add cgi-bin/wexec (CGI script for running full-widget UI)
    * When Stephen is happily using the PWL in his application, we will
      consider this milestone achieved.

  o Milestone 6: Release as Widget-1.00 and announce to modperl and Perl
community
    o get Pod documentation of classes up to speed
    o create a better statement of "what this is"
    o create a list of "have you ever wished that... ?" questions to
interest people
    o add mod_perl support