[rgui-dev] Clairvoyance

[Massimiliano Mirra]

>From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

  clairvoyance
       n : apparent power to perceive things that are not present to
           the senses [syn: {second sight}, {extrasensory perception},
            {ESP}, {esp}]


Lots of brainstorming on the nuts and bolts of GUtopIa lately.  That's
good.

I do feel the need for a glimpse of the future, though.  When the
storm will have calmed down and things will have graciously fallen to
their places, what do you think they will be like?

People's paths depart from different points, namely backends and
toolkits, and will eventually converge in one place.  How will this
place be?

A lot is being discussed on how to accomplish the objective.  Is the
the objective known enough?

I admit I'm thinking test-first.  When you code test-first, you look
into the future (and shape it).  You concentrate on the `what' before
the `how', because otherwise you might find a great answer, but that's
gambling if you don't know the question first.

So I'd like to ask you: when GUtopIa will be well and ready, let's say
a trimester from now, and you will be sitting at your computer and
writing an application, and this application will have a GUI, what
will you be doing?

Will you open application.rb, write `require "gutopia"', and start
issuing commands that will build the GUI, e.g. window =
GUtopIa::Window.new?

Will you write `class Model' instead, and then
GUtopIa::AutoMagic.create_gui(model)?

Will you open application-gui.gtp and write some markup language?

Will you think in terms of TreeView, ListView, CheckButton, i.e. in
terms of appearance?  Or will you think in term of tree, array,
boolean, i.e. in terms of meaning, and let some kind of style sheet do
the layout for you?

What kind of application will you actually be writing, and what kind
of application will you *not* consider writing, given what you will
have?

I'm curious about how it will be like when this whole thing is
finished and you will *use* it.  Imagine an application (a
spreadsheet, an editor, a music player, whatever), imagine that
whatever desire you could have in this field has already been
fulfilled, and now you just have to reap the fruits, enjoying the
laziest, sultriest, most flexible and most elegant GUI programming you
can think of.  What do you see printed on your screen?

I know, I know.  Many of those questions have found bits of answers
here and there in the previous threads.  Sometimes I even contributed
some pseudocode, and the wikis relate to this as well.  But I'd really
like to see something just a logical level higher.

Indulge in a little clairvoyance.  You could be amazed at the
results. :-)


Massimiliano