Re: [Phphtmllib-devel] Usability issues

[David M. <da...@re...>]

Hi,

Following up from previous email, I've come up with a solution - a set
of function wrappers that constructs tag objects and populates them on
the fly with an arbitrary number of elements.

For example:

  function TRtag($attribs)
  {
    $tag = new TRtag($attribs);
    $n = func_num_args();
    for ($i = 1; $i < $n; $i++)
      $tag->push(func_get_arg($i));
    return $tag;
  }

That way, I'm able to take advantages of the strengths of phpHtmlLib and
generate some quite readable code.

Example from previous messages then converts to:

  $cmdstyle = array('size'=>'1',
                    'face'=>'arial,helvetica,sans-serif');
  $row1 = TRtag("",
            TDtag(array('align'=>'right'),
              FONTtag($cmdstyle,
                "Commands:")),
            TDtag("",
              FONTtag($cmdstyle,
                Atag(array("href"=>"$urlPrefix&dbCommand=newTask",
			   "title"=>"Create New Task"),
                  "Create New"))));
  print $row1->render();

That's a whole lot more readable (well, to me anyway).

I forgot to say - thanks guys for developing phpHtmlLib - it really is
an excellent tool. Great building-block towards HTML abstraction in PHP.

Cheers
David


On Thu, 2002-06-06 at 22:17, David McNab wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've just tried out phpHtmlLib on a part of a web app I've written.
> 
> As much as I hate to say this, after all the work you guys have put into
> it, I've found that the phpHtmlLib-ised code is twice as long and half
> as readable, compared to plain echo statements.
> 
> Code snippets follow.
> 
> Before phpHtmlLib:
> 
>   $ff = "<td><font size=1 face='arial,helvetica,sans-serif'>";
>   $ffr = "<td align=right>"
> 	. <font size=1 face='arial,helvetica,sans-serif'>";
>   $ffend = "</font></td>";
> 
>   echo "<tr>";
>   echo "$ffr" . "Commands:</td>$ff";
>   writeLink("$urlPrefix&dbCommand=newTask", "Create New Task",
> 		"Create New", "", "");
>   echo "$ffend";
>   echo "</tr>";
> 
> phpHtmlLib-ised version which does exactly the same:
> 
>   $row1 = new TRtag();
>   $fflabel = new FONTtag(array('size'=>'1',
> 				'face'=>'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'));
>   $col1 = new TDtag(array('align'=>'right'));
>   $fff = $fflabel;
>   $fff->push("Commands:");
>   $col1->push($fff);
>   $row1->push($col1);
>   $col1 = new TDtag(array('align'=>'left'));
>   $fff = $fflabel;
>   $link1 = new Atag(array("href"=>"$urlPrefix&dbCommand=newTask",
> 			  "title"=>"Create New Task"));
>   $link1->push("Create New");
>   $fff->push($link1);
>   $col1->push($fff);
>   $row1->push($col1);
>   print $row1->render();
> 
> To me, it's about as clear as mud compared to the raw version.
> 
> I tried to make it more readable by creating tags on the fly, within
> constructors for enclosing tags. Thus the previous code looks more like:
> 
>   $row1 = new TRtag(
> 	    "",
> 	    new TDtag(array('align'=>'right'),
> 	      new FONTtag(array('size'=>'1',
> 				'face'=>'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'),
> 			  "Commands:")));
>   $row1->push(new TDtag("",
> 	new FONTtag(array('size'=>'1',
> 				'face'=>'arial,helvetica,sans-serif'),
> 		new Atag(array("href"=>"$urlPrefix&dbCommand=newTask",
> 			"title"=>"Create New Task"),
> 		   	"Create New"))));
>   print $row1->render();
> 
> Pardon the shitty formatting - blame my email client.
> 
> But alas, the readability has not improved.
> 
> I might humbly suggest that phpHtmlLib would allow for more readable
> code if the constructors could take an arbitrary number of content
> arguments.
> 
> Or, better, if there were global functions with the same name as the
> phpHtmlLib classes, which take an arbitrary number of arguments and
> return a new instance of a tag object.
> 
> For example:
> 
>  $row1 = TRtag("",
>            TDtag(array('align'=>'right'),
>              FONTtag(array('size'=>'1','face'=>'arial etc'),
>                "Commands:")),
>            TDtag(array("",
>              FONTtag(array('size'=>'1','face'=>'arial etc'),
>                Atag(array('href'=>'somegoddamurl', 'title'=>'myshit'),
>                  "Create New"))));
> 
> With code like *that*, I could scan over it with even the most tired
> eyes and still see clearly what's going on, without having to follow
> gazillions of different variables.
> 
> Thoughts anyone?
> 
> Cheers
> David
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________
> 
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> August 25-28 in Las Vegas -- http://devcon.sprintpcs.com/adp/index.cfm
> 
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