Re: [Visualswing-developers] Proposed Feature List and Description

[todd r. <tod...@ya...>]

Scott, you rock!  Thanks for doing this, it looks
great.  I have a few thoughts, embedded below:

--- Scott Corley <sc...@mi...> wrote:
> On 20-06-2003, a brief features list was distributed
> to the developer's
> mailing list.  Although not much in the way of
> response has been made, I
> thought we could flesh out more details regarding
> that list and
> hopefully post the new features list on the website.
>  
> GUI view - 
> A>    Will allow a user to develop Graphical User
> Interfaces with Java's
> Swing library.  
> B>    Will support the Layout Managers provided for
> in the Swing and AWT
> libraries.
> C>    Will support GUIs created using no Layout
> Manager and absolutely
> positioned/sized components.
> D>    Will provide the usage of all Swing containers
> and other
> components to build a GUI.
> E>    Will also allow the user to create template
> components that may be
> added to a GUI like any other standard Swing
> components.  

Are you talking about custom, user created classes
that inherit from JComponent?  If I'm wrong, could you
elaborate?

> F>    Will allow the user to set all component
> properties and add Event
> Listeners to components.
>  
> File formats -
> A>    Will generate .java files for the GUI created.
> B>    Will generate .class files for the GUI
> created.
> C>    Will generate some other internal format (most
> likely XML) which
> will allow the components created to be added to the
> set of usable
> components.

Is this the format that we're going to save "works in
progress"?

> D>    Will read .java files for existing GUI
> (whether created by the
> tool or not).

This one may get sticky. Maybe I should make sure I
understand the intent - I can take any .java class
(presumably that inherits from JComponent) and have VS
load it up?

I think it would be awesome if we could reliably parse
.java files, but I also think it's going to be a
beast. 

> E>    Will read existing files in our internal
> format. 
>  
> Code view - 
> A>    Should incorporate a text editor to allow the
> user to edit Java
> code manually to manipulate the GUI as well as
> through the GUI view.
> (Whether we are going to author our own text editor
> or act as a plug-in
> to a project with an existing text editor is
> undecided.)

The more I think about this one, the more I think that
maybe we don't provide an editior (you drag and drop
components, set properties and provide code for
events, but not manipulate the .java file) in the
standalone version.  Instead, we have a simple to use
GUI Builder that outputs the file formats discussed. 
Then we provide a version that is a plug-in, and we
leverage that tools editor.  That way, beginners can
get started without worrying about setting up a full
IDE - once they're ready (and hooked on Java), they
advance to the next level.

>  
>  Please review and comment on the points listed
> above.  
>  
> Personally, I would like to see the first release
> attempt to fulfill all
> of the GUI View and File Format items.  

When you say "first release", I assume you're talking
about version 1.0, and not the first "file release"
that we post on the sourceforge download page.  If I
understand that correctly, I concur 100%.  

>  
> Scott Corley
> 


=====
The only "dumb question" is the one you were too afraid to ask.

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