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Hmm... looks almost like HTML, which looks similar to XML which is supposed to be the latest and greatest for data transfer. I wonder if we could develop XML formatted scripts? Here is some sample XML I grabbed off the web: <?XML version="1.0"?> <!-- **** Basket **** --> <PRODUCT> <product_id>98756</product_id> <product_name>basket</product_name> <unit_of_measure>each</unit_of_measure> <specification> <variable>color</variable> <value>blue</value> </specification> <specification> <variable>size</variable> <value>large</value> </specification> <specification></specification> <specification/> </PRODUCT> We could maybe incorporate some of your great ideas and make it looks something like this: <?XML version="1.0"?> <!-- **** Basket **** --> <PRODUCT> <panel_name>CustomerPanel</panel_name> <specification> <field_name>customer</field_name> <prompt>Customer Number</prompt> <specification> <choice>3</choice> <prompt>Customer number</prompt> </specification> </specification> etc... The only difference being this is in XML format (which I don't know, I just modified the sample cluelessly) which is supposed to be a standard. Then at least any XML parser should be able to get the general information out, or we could have custom XML parsers that create the screen directly. I like your idea. Regards, Jim Langston Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 12:10:19 -0500 From: "Joe Pluta" <joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com> Subject: RE: Free OS/400 > It would be neat if someone were providing an integrated client and server GUI environment. No one really is yet. And this, folks, would be the REAL plum of an open source type of project. Not the little quibbles about whether e-RPG or HTTP or data queues is the way to support a GUI. Heck, you should be able to CHOOSE which one of those you want. Instead, we should be developing an "application definition language" that allows us to dynamically design an n-tier application without worrying about the plumbing details. <APPLICATION name="OrderStatusInquiry"> <PANEL name="CustomerPanel"> <FIELD name="customer" prompt="Customer number"/> <ACTION choice=03 prompt="exit"> </PANEL> <TRANSACTION name=getStatusForCustomer> <REQUEST> <FIELD name="customer" validate="Lookup(CUSTFILE)"/> </REQUEST> <RESPONSE> <SET maxOccurence=20> <FIELD name="orderNumber" drillable sortable/> <FIELD name="orderDate" sortable edit=*date/> <FIELD name="status"/> </SET> <RESPONSE> </TRANSACTION> <PANEL name="OrderPanel"> <TABLE> <FIELD option heading="opt"> <FIELD name="orderNumber" heading="Order" drillable sortable/> <FIELD name="orderDate" heading="Date" sortable edit=*date/> <FIELD name="status" heading="status"/> <OPTION choice=02 panel="OrderEdit" parms="customer, orderNumber"> <OPTION choice=03 panel="OrderCopy" parms="customer, orderNumber"> </TABLE> <ACTION choice=03 prompt="exit"> </PANEL> </APPLICATION> How the rest of the panel is fleshed out it is sort of inconsequential. You could have a corporate standard that does most of the work, or on the other end of the spectrum you could feed the definitions into a WYSIWYG editor that you can then use to finish off the UI design. Or you could have a combination of both, a skeleton with the ability to pretty up the presentation. The server side would be similar. You could have a corporate standard that generates RPG code, or COBOL code, or even SQL stored procedures. The end result is not the hard part; the hard part is a standardized definition that we can then use regardless of the architectural design we choose. This, to my mind, is the direction we need to start thinking. Rather than spending a whole lot of time on which GUI is the best, I think we need to really decide what we want our next generation of application development tools to look like. And some fancy GUI designer with a bunch of SQL wizards is not the way to go. IMHO. Joe +--- | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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