On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 21:34, Ulrich Mayring wrote: > Peter Donald wrote: > > This can be generalized in an XML workflow language. Theres a few > > attempts in opensource and commercial alike that attempt this. Many are > > even independent of the rendering technology (ie XML vs Swing vs > > whatever). > > Yes, and my personal pet idea is that the workflow modelling and the > user interface modelling should be in the same XML language. I believe > in data-driven applications, even though this idea is not very popular > with users of procedural programming languages. Users of declarative > programming languages have never written anything else than data-driven > applications, so some mainstream people tend to ignore this concept. > > If we're talking about data-driven user interfaces (instead of > layout-driven), then XML and XML Schema are of course a natural fit for > the data that is supposed to drive things.
I consider layout is just another set of data. I did some work for some usability labs and while I didn't get to play with some of this directly I did see them do some great stuff. You know how many applications these days have a "simple" mode and a "expert" mode. These would just be different Views on same Controller/Model. So people with vastly different interaction requirements (data entry vs data management) just mean a switch xml files. Very very fast prototyping environment and very very good for satisfying multiple different types of users. > Usually applications are divided into the three main concerns of logic, > data and presentation. Controller, Model, View ? yeppo. > The problem is that in a "classic" app the GUI is > really a bunch of custom and active logic that pulls data to fill in the > blanks. In a data-driven application the GUI is a bunch of passive and > generic logic and the data is pushed into it. I have a kinda different view. IMHO all GUI apps should be designed to be passive - only respond to events. Whether the initiater of these events is a user, a database or whatever should be irrelevent. Unfortunately this is rarely the case - most GUI apps put their logic inside their event handlers (ug) rather than separating it into separate logic components. Because of this the view code becomes so interwoven with the logic most people assume it has to be this way ;( -- Cheers, Pete -------------------------------------------------- Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise. -------------------------------------------------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
