[Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards
Hi everybody, Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build Wizards. It is available on squeaksource at: http://www.squeaksource.com/Merlin. You will find a small example in the class side of 'WizardControl'. I have been making this library to build a Moose wizard that enable to select packages and some importations informations. Therefore, you can see this other example by loading Moose with: 'ConfigurationOfMoose loadDefault '. It will load all required classes. The Moose Wizard will be in the package Moose-Wizard. So, feel free to test it or use it if needed :)
Thanks for tackling this; wizards can be very useful, and Pharo should have an easy way to create them. So far, I have only loaded the package, run the example, and glanced at the hierarchy. Purely cosmetic, it would be good to defaullt to "<< Back" and "Next >>" for the buttons. There will always be other buttons to add in weird cases, but the first/last/middle panes can do reasonable things unless customized. Is there a way to fix a size for the wizard? Changing to the size of the current pane is powerful, but also looks strange. I am suspicious of the WizardPart heirarchy. Are they controls that can only work in a wizard? It seems unlikely, or perhaps that there should be a more generic hierarchy of controls/presenters that work in wizards and anywhere else. Put another way, I fear that their existence highlights something missing in Pharo. TEasilyThemed gets close to providing ways to create useful controls, but it IMHO falls short on the presenter/model side. Gary didn't like the idea of default models, but I still think there is room for improvement. A list shoud have something that provides its needed selection index aspect, allowing one to think in terms of the object corresponding to the selection. Value models and adapters (particularly aspect value adapters) offer a great view from the top of the learning curve. One thing that I like about Polymorph (and Magritte and Seaside) is that domain objects get a active say in their graphical representation. Dolphin's MVP framework typically forces a GUI onto the model rather than letting the model grow one to suit it. A good compromise might be to create analogs to Dolphin's presenters with those (rather than the controls themselves) being produced by something like TEasilyThemed. The Smalltalk code creating the presenters could include just enough layout objects and methods to do the job of the Dolpin view composer and layout managers. At least I _think_ it could work that way - great stuff if I'm at all close to thinking straight. Bill ________________________________ From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of Cyrille Delaunay Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 10:06 AM To: pharo-project Subject: [Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards Hi everybody, Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build Wizards. It is available on squeaksource at: http://www.squeaksource.com/Merlin. You will find a small example in the class side of 'WizardControl'. I have been making this library to build a Moose wizard that enable to select packages and some importations informations. Therefore, you can see this other example by loading Moose with: 'ConfigurationOfMoose loadDefault '. It will load all required classes. The Moose Wizard will be in the package Moose-Wizard. So, feel free to test it or use it if needed :)
Hello, Cyrille Delaunay wrote:
Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build Wizards.
I test it. It is quit good. Just wondering why user have to say a pane is the first pane, dans another pane is the last. Could not the framework find it by itself ? The first one is a FirstPane and the last one when it is launch is a LastPane ? a+ Vicnet -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Merlin-a-library-to-build-Wizards-tp4038238p4051036.htm... Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
If I understand you, that's not a good idea: the last pane in the sequence is not necessarily the last step in the wizard. I have examples in Dolphin that branch depending on user's choices along the way, and sometimes it reaches a close with additional panes remaining in the list, but those are for "the road not taken." Bill -----Original Message----- From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of vicnet Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 8:21 AM To: pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards Hello, Cyrille Delaunay wrote:
Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build Wizards.
I test it. It is quit good. Just wondering why user have to say a pane is the first pane, dans another pane is the last. Could not the framework find it by itself ? The first one is a FirstPane and the last one when it is launch is a LastPane ? a+ Vicnet -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Merlin-a-library-to-build-Wizards-tp4038238p4051036.htm... Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project
Hi, Thanks for your comments. I have changed the default buttons to 'Next >>' and '<< Back'. I have not yet find how to fix the same size to all panes. For the moment I'm using a 'PluggableDialogWindow' that I open in a StandardWindow (StandardWindow new openModal: dialogWindow). Doing this, the pane is automatically resize according the elements of the dialogWindow. But indeed, it would maybe be more usefull for the user to click the next buttons one after the others without moving the moose according the resized pane. WizardPart is not so specific to the wizard hierarchy: -> There is the two methods 'outputValue' and 'retrieveInputRequired' that make the link with a cooresponding wizard pane , but they are abstract methods. Therefore, you can retrieve the inputs in the way you want and make what you want with the output. -> The other link is a kind of control for enabling the next button of the wizard pane. By default, it's an instance variable set to true, so you can not take care of that. A lot of subclasses of WizardPart I made don't retrieve any input and don't care about the next button. You can create instances and directly have the morph contents (with the method 'contents'). I agree for the LastPane. For example, in the addition, soustraction, ... wizard example, a LastPane could have been the selection of the last element of the operation, and after that we could have a pane that simply display the result (without any control). However, the first pane diplayed in a wizard will allways look like a FirstWizardPane (or maybe a customized version of it). 2009/11/23 Schwab,Wilhelm K <bschwab@anest.ufl.edu>
If I understand you, that's not a good idea: the last pane in the sequence is not necessarily the last step in the wizard. I have examples in Dolphin that branch depending on user's choices along the way, and sometimes it reaches a close with additional panes remaining in the list, but those are for "the road not taken."
Bill
-----Original Message----- From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [mailto: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of vicnet Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 8:21 AM To: pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards
Hello,
Cyrille Delaunay wrote:
Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build
Wizards.
I test it. It is quit good.
Just wondering why user have to say a pane is the first pane, dans another pane is the last.
Could not the framework find it by itself ? The first one is a FirstPane and the last one when it is launch is a LastPane ?
a+ Vicnet -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Merlin-a-library-to-build-Wizards-tp4038238p4051036.htm... Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
_______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project
_______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project
Keeping a desired size might be as simple as adding a surrounding container, but hopefully Gary can provide a #preferredExtent or something, that when notNil fixes the size of a window w/o the need to "waste a widget." It took a little while to get it right, but Dolphin has long done a nice job of that - no great surprise really. As a grateful friend, not only does the current situation force the user to chase the buttons between panes, it also looks like we don't know how to fix the size (which coincidentally is the case, however temporary it might be<g>). Having views that _can_ size themselves is great; we should not need to rely on it when building for end users. I have not had much time for GUIs in Pharo, but I already miss MVP. Gary is probably the best person to comment on whether your data manipulation methods are redundant or belong at a more abstract level. I think it has to be one or the other, as getting data into and out of controls is not specific to wizards. If you have done it well, we should probably spread it around; if there are better ways to do the job, we should note that and you should eventually/gradually move toward the better approach. Repeating myself a little, I really like value models and adapters for matching domain objects to controls. Thanks for doing this! Bill ________________________________ From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of Cyrille Delaunay Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 9:23 AM To: Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards Hi, Thanks for your comments. I have changed the default buttons to 'Next >>' and '<< Back'. I have not yet find how to fix the same size to all panes. For the moment I'm using a 'PluggableDialogWindow' that I open in a StandardWindow (StandardWindow new openModal: dialogWindow). Doing this, the pane is automatically resize according the elements of the dialogWindow. But indeed, it would maybe be more usefull for the user to click the next buttons one after the others without moving the moose according the resized pane. WizardPart is not so specific to the wizard hierarchy: -> There is the two methods 'outputValue' and 'retrieveInputRequired' that make the link with a cooresponding wizard pane , but they are abstract methods. Therefore, you can retrieve the inputs in the way you want and make what you want with the output. -> The other link is a kind of control for enabling the next button of the wizard pane. By default, it's an instance variable set to true, so you can not take care of that. A lot of subclasses of WizardPart I made don't retrieve any input and don't care about the next button. You can create instances and directly have the morph contents (with the method 'contents'). I agree for the LastPane. For example, in the addition, soustraction, ... wizard example, a LastPane could have been the selection of the last element of the operation, and after that we could have a pane that simply display the result (without any control). However, the first pane diplayed in a wizard will allways look like a FirstWizardPane (or maybe a customized version of it). 2009/11/23 Schwab,Wilhelm K <bschwab@anest.ufl.edu<mailto:bschwab@anest.ufl.edu>> If I understand you, that's not a good idea: the last pane in the sequence is not necessarily the last step in the wizard. I have examples in Dolphin that branch depending on user's choices along the way, and sometimes it reaches a close with additional panes remaining in the list, but those are for "the road not taken." Bill -----Original Message----- From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr<mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr> [mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr<mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr>] On Behalf Of vicnet Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 8:21 AM To: pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr<mailto:pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr> Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Merlin: a library to build Wizards Hello, Cyrille Delaunay wrote:
Just send this email to inform you that I have developed a small library ( called 'Merlin' ) that provide a simple structure to build Wizards.
I test it. It is quit good. Just wondering why user have to say a pane is the first pane, dans another pane is the last. Could not the framework find it by itself ? The first one is a FirstPane and the last one when it is launch is a LastPane ? a+ Vicnet -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Merlin-a-library-to-build-Wizards-tp4038238p4051036.htm... Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr<mailto:Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr> http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project _______________________________________________ Pharo-project mailing list Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr<mailto:Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr> http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project
participants (3)
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Cyrille Delaunay -
Schwab,Wilhelm K -
vicnet