[Webmacro-devel] Re: ContextTool: A different approach

[Brian G. <br...@qu...>]

>Yes, it would.  In my application's "template space", not in webmacro.jar

Is that all this is about?  Then this whole discussion is (almost) moot!

Webmacro.properties lives outside of webmacro.jar now -- it is "application 
space."  You can turn off any default directive or tool now with a line in 
Webmacro.properties:
   ContextTool.List:

You can add your own directives and tools through Webmacro.properties now:
   ContextTool.MyTool: com.me.MyTool

WM.defaults is just that -- defaults.  I don't think there is anything in 
WM.defaults that you can't easily "turn off" in WM.properties.  So what's 
the issue?

The only think you _can't_ do now easily is turn off ALL the default 
tools.  But if that's really what you want, that's easily added:
   SuppressDefaultContextTools: true
   SuppressDefaultFunctions: true

That's a trivial enhancement and doesn't change the structure of Context or 
context tools at all.

Or here's another idea which might also make you happy: a "package" 
concept.  A "package" is a bundle of WM add-ins (directives, tools, macros, 
functions), most of which are currently defined in 
WM.defaults/properties.  Take the current default functions and tools, and 
put them in a package called "Default".  WM.defaults would load this 
package, but WM.properties could override the loading with one line.

We could even break the current default tools/functions/etc into relevant 
packages, like a servlet package (Request, Response, Form), a utility 
package (List, etc), blah blah.

Is that what you want?  That's easy too.

>>   IncludeInEveryTemplate: globals.wm
>
>Exactly.  A configuration option.

I have no objection to this mechanism (it seems quite useful), but it seems 
entirely orthogonal to the current discussion.

Actually, having two -- one which is include at the top and one at the 
bottom could be very helpful as a primitive style sheet mechanism.

>You missed this one:
>     ContextTools.BrianIsBeingAnAss: com.goetz.brian.AssTool

Maybe Brian is stoopid, but I guess I just don't see how this is any better 
than the current setup -- and I can see ways in which it is worse.

>How is it different?  1 configuration that you'd probably be able to 
>intelligently configure while you're are initially configuring 
>WebMacro.  I don't know about you, but I would not be capable of trimming 
>(or expanding) the list of ContextTools during my initial configuration of 
>WM... esp. if I'm a new user.  I wouldn't know the difference between 
>VaraiableTool and TypeTool, and I wouldn't even know why I would (or 
>wouldn't) need them.

It sounds like you'd be entirely satisfied with a config option that just 
turns off loading of all tools that come from WM.defaults, then?

Is this really a debate about configuration visibility?  That sounds like a 
sensible debate -- and I think the current mechanism is probably "almost 
there."



--
Brian Goetz
Quiotix Corporation
br...@qu...           Tel: 650-843-1300            Fax: 650-324-8032

http://www.quiotix.com