I'll reply to myself here, as it was prematurely sent.

Why stop at a GUI builder? why not go for a full application/object

builder?

Squeak itself is already this. Having a GUI builder seems somewhat like having a chair on a bench... perhaps this can still be desireable, though.

Why not say something like... Squeak's factory interface objects are "not good"? "Not visually pleasing or consistant enough"? Etc.

Atomically, consistance/standardism here consists of sharing the same

class

and class heirarchy. Ie. if it is a Morph and also a BasicButton, it can

be

considered a standard button "widget". Though BasicButton is only a

template

or convenience wrapper for a predefined definition of a Morphic state representing a basic button; enough to draw, show clicks, carry out

itself.

As long as media(external) and memory(internal) technology remain seperate, their interfaces and representation always will as well. The class library is an interface to memory; concerning objects, functionality, and comfortable concepts and ideas for working with it. Age and maturity has neared this basic Smalltalk core foundation to a state where it is difficult to "make better" - near perfection, to where itself and its dependants (implementors, users, inspirators) are concerned.

The class library for visual representation is imperfect, and perhaps always will be. The guts of this is memory and data. When the distance between visual and nonvisual representations actually shortens, as is the case especially with Morphic - you can start considering changes like "what to name a variable or method" as "what color to choose, what line thickness to choose"...

--Lyndon

From: "Noury Bouraqadi" bouraqadi@ensm-douai.fr

...

Hi,

lex@cc.gatech.edu wrote:

...

Everyone, be aware that there are also "rubber stamps" available; they simply aren't in the main image. Check out things like Bob's UI,

Prefab,

...

...

or Zurgle.

"GUI Building Tools" http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/1576

It is probably worth picking one of these and making it available in a "full" image in the future, along with a good Play With Me that

shows

...

...

how to use it. IMHO, we should accept into the "full" image the first

GUI

...

...

library whose maintainer promises to build and maintain a Play With Me for it.

Yes, I totally agree. The question about GUI building is too recurent.

--

Noury

Dr. Noury Bouraqadi - Enseignant/Chercheur Ecole des Mines de Douai - Dept. G.I.P http://csl.ensm-douai.fr/noury

European Smalltalk Users Group http://www.esug.org

Squeak: an Open Source Smalltalk http://www.squeak.org

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