[e4-dev] Re: Some comments on XWT

[Angelo zerr <angelo.zerr@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

>Agree, this seems the most practical approach.  But
you know Angelo has a lot of energy so he'll probably just write us a new
>CSS3 SAC parser this weekend :)

It's nice Kevin to think that about me:) Indead with CSS3 we can manage namespace like this : 

To disting org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label and my.Label, you can write :

@namespace swt "org.eclipse.swt.widgets";
@namespace my "my";

swt|Label {
   color;red;
}

my|Label {
   color;red;
}

I would like speak too about "Declarative Business Object". Today with XWT we have : 

* Declarative UI
* Declarative Binding

But I think it shoudl be cool to have "Declarative Business Object", on other words declare with script (_javascript_ or another), several scripting object and bind it to UI. I had done that into Akrogen and your Eclipse wizard is totaly declaratif. 

Ex we could write with XWT : 

<script>
   function Person(name) {
      this.name = name;
   }
   var p = new Person();
   p.name = 'XXX';
</script>
<Text value={Binding source=p path=name} />

What do you yhink about that? Yves do you think it's possible to extend XWT to add this feature if you like the idea?

If you don't like the idea, you can stop read the mail. To manage this case, we must have Scripting binding. I have start to implement JFace Databinding with Rhino (_javascript_). If you are interested, I could tell you more. For the moment I think put my work into UFacekit.

Regards Angelo

2009/3/3 Kevin McGuire <Kevin_McGuire@xxxxxxxxxx>

> Thanks for clarifying this, Kevin. I didn't realize that there are more
> than one declarative UI technologies being explored - my fault, I missed
> the discussion on the mailing list, so I'm sorry for the noise.

No noise at all Ralf.  First of all, I think it's very difficult for everyone to track everything going on in e4.  Second, I thought that the statement about the dynamics of the incubator was worth discussing since as I said it likely is not clear.

 
> > I'm missing something... how does existance (or lack) of namespaces in XWT
> > and CSS related to each other?  Do you envision them referring to each
> > other?  Or are just saying that the same reasons that drive the need for
> > namespace in XWT probably also argue for them in CSS?
>
> I just imagine that if a custom widget is being referred to using a
> namespace in XWT and using a (maybe prefixed) name in CSS, this would be
> a bad design. When there are conflicts between widget names, we need a
> method of distinguishing between say, SWT Label and my.custom.Label. And
> then, shouldn't this method should be the same in XWT and CSS?

Ah I understand. Yes, ideally they should be similar.

 
> Anyway, I see that namespaces cannot be avoided in XWT, so we can also
> defer this issue in CSS until it happens to be a real problem and/or we
> see any alternatives.

Agree, this seems the most practical approach.  But you know Angelo has a lot of energy so he'll probably just write us a new CSS3 SAC parser this weekend :)

Regards,
Kevin