[Pipet Devel] Re: Ideas for network distributed objects

[J.W. Bizzaro]

jarl van katwijk wrote:
> 
> > Jarl, what do you think about Loci's idea of using XML for GUI
> > representations?
> 
> Hmm? Please explain, I can't pinpoint what you're trying to say.

Here's the short and simple: The user sets the parameters for nodes via some
kind of interface.  The interface is described via an XML akin to the HTML
forms generated by CGI programs.  It's much quicker than other ways to
transfer G/UIs.

Plus, the XML can be combined to generate more elaborate GUIs.  Here is a Gtk
GUI in GLADE XML as an example of how complex GUIs can be made with XML:

<widget>
  <class>GtkWindow</class>
  <name>window1</name>
  <title>window1</title>
  <type>GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL</type>
  <position>GTK_WIN_POS_NONE</position>
  <allow_shrink>True</allow_shrink>
  <allow_grow>True</allow_grow>
  <auto_shrink>False</auto_shrink>

  <widget>
    <class>GtkFixed</class>
    <name>fixed1</name>

    <widget>
      <class>GtkButton</class>
      <name>button1</name>
      <x>32</x>
      <y>16</y>
      <width>112</width>
      <height>40</height>
      <can_focus>True</can_focus>
      <label>button1</label>
    </widget>
  </widget>
</widget>

Notice the heirarchy of widgets.  NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT: The heirarchy of
nodes in a subnet, plus the XML descriptions of their interfaces, can be used
to arrange widgets and construct a GUI!

This is all in the Loci archives where we discussed 'composited GUIs' and
'constructing the command-line'.  I'll certainly be talking more about this
later, as it is a major design feature of Loci.

Cheers.
Jeff
-- 
                      +----------------------------------+
                      |           J.W. Bizzaro           |
                      |                                  |
                      | http://bioinformatics.org/~jeff/ |
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                      |        BIOINFORMATICS.ORG        |
                      |           The Open Lab           |
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                      |    http://bioinformatics.org/    |
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