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RE: [platform-swt-dev] possible XML SWT markup language?

> I haven't tried JellySWT or XAML myself but I think the
> concept of an XML GUI markup language would be very helpful.

I agree.  Judging by the traffic this thread has generated, I think we've
struck a chord.
I've been reading up on the multitude of links, and they look like good
projects.  However they are not what I think would be best for the Eclipse
community to adopt - let me try and explain why:

Most of these projects seem to be either generic UI descriptors, trying to
support a multitude of UI frameworks, or Swing UI descriptors, being
retro-fitted to use SWT.
Part of the strength SWT has, part of the reason it is as fast and
reliable as it is, is there is a 1-to-1 mapping in the JNI calls between
OS calls and their java equivs.  A set of more general widgets were then
built on top, abstracting out the difference between a win32 buttonCreate
call and a GTK2 buttonCreate call, but the abstraction was kept in only
one layer.
This layer already works.  There is no need to create another.  Trying to
create another object/API set in XML to enclose Swing/SWT/AWT/etc
drastically increases the complexity of the task, and creates a lot more
work for the programmer than it saves (in tracking down performance
problems, having to look up widgetA->widgetB mappings, etc).
I say we keep with the Eclipse princple of 1-to-1 mappings outside the
single layer of abstraction.  1 XML tag to 1 SWT object.  1 property to 1
method.  Let there be different, seperate XML descriptors for
SWT/Swing/AWT.  They will each be simpler, faster, easier to work with.

I'm interested in either contribiting to or starting the SWT component to
such a project.  Chris, (or anyone else), if this is what you are
currently working on, I'd love to help.  :)


-- Derek Anderson
Software Engineer
http://kered.org


P.S.  The JellySWT project - I like it, but I noticed a really odd-ball
element in its example.  The java code for the event loop is embedded in
the XML descriptior of the shell?  WTF? :)  Even if you, as the comment
suggests, abstract it out away as a tag, that seems like a very bad idea. 
XML makes a horrible wrapper around source code, and it breaks the nice
encapsulation you otherwise enforce.  I suggest a hard and fast rule of no
logic operations, instead simply firing off events in actual java code. 
What do you think?


> Here's another one: http://jgb.sourceforge.net/
> See also the XAML work in Longhorn (sorry, no link).
>
> The problem is most of these libraries have a license incompatible with
> Eclipse. I haven't tried JellySWT or XAML myself but I think the
> concept of an XML GUI markup language would be very helpful. After all,
> that's essentially what HTML is for web pages, right? Hmmm... maybe a
> GUI markup language should really start with XHTML.
>
>
> 	-----Original Message-----
> 	From: Dave Orme [mailto:DaveO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> 	Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:14 AM
> 	To: 'platform-swt-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx'
> 	Subject: RE: [platform-swt-dev] SV: [platform-swt-dev] possible XML
> 	SWT markup language?
>
>
>
>
> 	> there are some projects beginning to emerge at that front:
> 	> Jelly-SWT has it's SWT-binding at
> 	> http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/sandbox/jelly/jellyswt.html
> 	> <http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/sandbox/jelly/jellyswt.html>  but
> 	> the authors of that package are working on Xulux and Nyx
> 	> now. The thought is very cool ...
> 	>
> 	> http://nyx.xulux.org/index.html <http://nyx.xulux.org/index.html>
>
> 	I was aware of JellySWT, but not about xylux.  Thanks for the links.
>
>





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