Re: [Perl-widget-developer] Widget display/html output method name

[Issac G. <ne...@wr...>]

I'll second "render"...

  Issac

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gunther Birznieks" <gu...@ex...>
To: <Per...@li...>
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2001 17:38
Subject: [Perl-widget-developer] Widget display/html output method name


> At 02:17 PM 6/3/01 +0200, Issac Goldstand wrote:
>
>
> > > I would like to open up the debate about the use of 'display' or
'html'
> > > again.  I am wondering about the possibility of confusion between
> > > 'displaying' the code that generates the widget, and 'displaying' the
> > > value of the widget.  Also, display() seems to imply a print.  What if
we
> > > got rid of both html() and display() and used draw() or render() for
> > > generating the code, and leave value() as it is.  Or, if you want, you
can
> > > shoot me for opening up this can of worms again :)
> > >
> >
> >How about activate() or something else that can generically describe the
> >Widget... Theoretically, we could creaate a Timer widget (that does some
> >event after a certain time elaplses).  In such a case, words like
"display"
> >"draw" or "render" don't make sense...  Of course, we're not really
> >"activating" the widgets either, as we're creating them on-the-fly in the
> >target environment (e.g., HTML), but my personal hilosophy when designing
> >"thing"s to be used by developers is to try to pick names for methods and
> >properties that are easy to understand and _make sense_...  They'll
> >appreciate it.
>
> I agree that display, draw or render seems quite active as if to imply
> print. But these are fairly standard (especially draw) in GUI systems. The
> fact that a component is draw() was called doesn't actually mean it is
> displayed. In some cases, the draw can be just placed on a backend bitmap
> which will never display (double buffering).
>
> I dislike the name draw because it has a connotation of raw bitmaps (like
> drawing programs).
>
> By far, the best method name I have seen is render. It is semantically
> accurate. The widget is being rendered but it's not being displayed.
>
> Activate is one that I dislike because it implies you do it once or
implies
> a state change (active/inactive). This is not true. There is a distinct
> value being returned when render() would be called.
>
> Later,
>     Gunther
>
>
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