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Re: [eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] Declarative UI


Hi Hallvard,

> This is the target of a lot of research within my community (model-based UI
> design), including my own Diamodl.


Cool, I'd like to learn more.

> You haven't touched upon the concept of live model. Should it be based on XML's
> DOM? What is the benefit of using (a modeling framework like) EMF?


Yes good point.  I think a live model can be valuable if your goal is using the in-memory model as a kind of unifying structure to do higher level transforms against (e.g. mapping high level model B to literal model A).  It's also great for live GUI builders.  It can simplify access, which is what we're seeing for the workbench model work ("Yahoo, its now so easy to turn off the close box for a view!") although I'm not sure if here the benefit is by way of correcting existing architectures by bringing separate pieces together under one conceptual model.  For "normal" programming and case (A) of a literal SWT model though, I'm likely to just write against the SWT Java APIs rather than a model of the SWT structure.  OK maybe in some specific cases I need to create the stucture without attaching it to its parent yet, which SWT requires.

My current feeling is that if I were starting from scratch, EMF seems the right approach since I get lots for free in a well thought out and hardened framework.  Specifically, I get both serialization and a consistent in-memory model.  I don't really care about what the stuff looks like on disk (nor should anyone).  But kind of in response to Angelo's initial question, I wouldn't immediately discount an XML markup and DOM based parser, since it may suite my needs perfectly.

I guess it all depends on what our goals are and why.

Regards,
Kevin




Hallvard Trætteberg <hal@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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11/10/2008 05:24 PM

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Re: [eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] Declarative UI





Kevin,

Kevin McGuire wrote:
>
> Hallvard, good summary.

Thanks!

> A) A "literal" model of the UI.

This is the target of most XML formats. Although XSWT and XAML are different in
some respects, I believe they both target this. The difference is to what extent
they describe a process of building the UI or the state of the final UI. The
latter will more easily support a live model, since changes to the DOM will be
easier to map to "equivalent" changes to the UI.

> B) An abstract model of UIs (say, functional).

This is the target of a lot of research within my community (model-based UI
design), including my own Diamodl. As you say, this does not replace A), but
builds upon it.

> These two aren't mutually exclusive.  If you're doing (B), its probably
> handy having (A) so you can do a model to model transformation as the
> path to instantiating the actual widgets.

Yes, this is exactly why I'm using XSWT in my model-based runtime.

You haven't touched upon the concept of live model. Should it be based on XML's
DOM? What is the benefit of using (a modeling framework like) EMF?

Hallvard
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