Thanks for reminding me that I didn't get to part 2. Gary Van Domselaar wrote: > > > Of course this also means the > > GUI's become merged. Somehow, we'll just have the workspace 'zap' a whole WFD > > and leave a single locus in its place. > > I have 2 questions about the 'zapping' part: > 1) Creating a new gui from a composited WFD. > Say you are constructing a command line with a switch that requires a > filename, regex, or some other field. How would you construct the WFD > such that the switch and the text-field become associated during the WFD > composition? Say, like, take for example a standard POVRAY command-line: > > loci>x-povray -Idef.ini my_povray_file.pov > > For the unitiated: -I requires the name of the povray config file > def.ini Should there be a space in there? -Idef.ini or -I def.ini > my_povray_file.pov is the input filename. Are you asking, 'How would -I be associated with def.ini?' > Using Jeff's method, would you create a WFD like this? (I'm shortening your table a little cuz it wraps after 80 cols.) Header Conn Option Conn Field Conn Field ----------------------------------------------------------- URI path + FLAG=-I -> ENTRY=def.ini + my_pov...pov LOCUS_ID DESC="Config File" DESC="Input File" LOCUS_NAME LOCUS DESCRIPTION Etc. > Using the concatenator symbol '+' to represent the concatenation of > 'unassociated' flags ...because it doesn't matter the order in which unassociated items are written? Okay. > and the 'association' > symbol (->) to associate the Flags with their required fields (note: > these symbols are are mine and in no way reflect the symbols of my > employer ;-) Hmmm. > or would you instead use a 'concatenation connector (+)' > for all the connections, and use composite loci to associate the flags > with their required field? It is THE ORDER IN WHICH THINGS ARE CONNECTED that determines the order of the command-line fields. Simple as that. I'm expecting the user/developer would put things in the right order. So, your povray command line... x-povray -I def.ini my_povray_file.pov Would be 4 loci connected like so: +-----------+ +------+ +----------+ +----------+ | processor | ---> | flag | ---> | filename | ---> | filename | +-----------+ +------+ +----------+ +--+----------+------+ | povray | | -I | | def.ini | | my_povray_file.pov | +-----------+ +------+ +----------+ +--------------------+ Notice the loci types used here: (1) processor (2) flag (3) filename and that I haven't put types flag and filename in Loci yet. We'll have to make them. THERE ARE MANY MORE TYPES TO BE DEFINED THAN WHAT I HAVE ALREADY DEFINED. So, Brad, maybe type 'option' can be split up into flag, filename, and...what else can go on the command-line? Regex? > 2) What would one expect to see from the compostite locus when the > command line had been constructed? > > ----------------------------------------- > - POVRAY 3.0 - > ----------------------------------------- > - o Config File _def.ini________________- > - o Input File _my_povray_file.pov_____- > - - > ----------------------------------------- > - Helpful message here - > ----------------------------------------- Okay, note that the underscore ____ used to surround option names means that there is an edit box there, or a way to make a selection. Now, *IF* all options were changeable, you'd have something like this: (COMPOSITE GUI!!!) +---------------------------------------+ | PROCESSOR | (processor name supercedes others) +---------------------------------------+ | | | o Executable _x-povray______________ | | o Flag _-I____________________ | | o Filename _def.ini_______________ | | o Filename _my_povray_file.pov____ | | o Message _Povray is cool________ | | | | [Execute] | +---------------------------------------+ But, *IF* none of the options were changeable, you'd have something like this (COMPOSITE GUI!!!) +---------------------------------------+ | x-povray | (name is now set) +---------------------------------------+ | | | o Executable x-povray | | o Flag -I | | o Filename def.ini | | o Filename my_povray_file.pov | | | | [Execute] | +---------------------------------------+ | Povray is cool | (message is now set) +---------------------------------------+ Notice the edit boxes are gone. The names of options are now simply text labels. But I think we should also be able to hide the labels, for simplicity: (COMPOSITE GUI!!!) +-------------------+ | x-povray | +-------------------+ | [Execute] | +-------------------+ | Povray is cool | +-------------------+ Cheers. Jeff -- +----------------------------------+ | J.W. Bizzaro | | | | http://bioinformatics.org/~jeff/ | | | | THE OPEN LAB | | Open Source Bioinformatics | | | | http://bioinformatics.org/ | +----------------------------------+