Re: [PW-dev] parameter names (dash, underscore, none)

[Stephen A. <ste...@of...>]

At 11:38 AM 6/19/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Stephen Adkins <ste...@of...> wrote:
>>Hi,
>>
>>I continue to work on the next mini-release of the 
>>Perl Widget Library.  I have incorporated a number
>>of parameters from style sheets such as "border-style", etc.
>
>I understand the desire to make widgets as configurable as possible, but
do we 
>want to encourage HTML specific configuration that could be left to a style 
>sheet?

I am currently interested in providing many options to the developer.
I do believe that the *better* way is to put this information in a style
sheet.
As the library develops, I think we will learn what is the *best* way to do
it.

I have also completed "container attribute absorption".
This allows for a widget to "absorb" attributes from its container.
This paves the way for themes, languages, etc.

I use the terminology: "an element absorbs attributes from its container"
to distinguish it from inheritance, where: "a child class inherits attributes
from its parent class".

>Something I've been toying with is being able to specify a class for the 
>widget (not in the Perl module sense).  This class would indicate a general 
>set of default attribute values from a configuration file or other source.  
>This could also be used as the class of the object in a CSS file for HTML 
>environments.

Interesting...

>This allows for the coder to not have to worry about those elements
explicitly 
>in the code.  This also allows for configuration files to not have to be 
>specific to a particular named widget.  This also allows for styles to be 
>specified in a general fashion without regard for environment.

My whole vision for the Perl Widget Library is that the programmer will *not*
use the usage I described, where many parameter values of the widgets are
supplied
in the code.  Rather, preferred usage is 

   $last_name = $wc->widget("last_name");

and all of the details are included in configuration files (which would
include
style sheets).

>I don't have configuration code done yet in my sample implementation, but
I'll 
>try to get that done this week to illustrate how this could work.

By the way, when I get to a point where I am content with the basic plumbing
of the prototype, I look forward to evaluating the alternative prototype you
are developing.  I don't mean to be ignoring it.  Thanks for your active 
involvement.

>James Smith <JG...@TA...>, 979-862-3725
>Texas A&M CIS Operating Systems Group, Unix

Stephen