So, I've been thinking...(that's twice this year so far)

Would anyone be interested in a drag and drop/visual Reaction editor for OS4?

I know we have Reactor and Emperor, but choice is almost always a good thing, isn't it?

The idea is to allow absolute beginners to knock together a basic interface using simple drawing tools (based on MindSpace naturally). There would be options (eventually) to preview the interface being designed and spew out C source code. A very early version would probably support window, button, string and integer classes, with more added over time.

The editor wouldn't necessarily produce pixel perfect previews, but should be enough to work out al those horrid H_layout and V-Layout tags...

It might look a bit like this.

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@yoodoo2

A very, very good idea! If you need any support with images, please contact me!

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@yoodoo2

That would be superb! Let me know if you need a tester for the MindGUI.

@yoodoo2

I have been thinking the same thing,

What I was thinking was some kind of XML based template format, where you can add HGroups and VGroups, and objects whit in, the template can then be converted in to MUI or Reaction code when your done.

Click -> Point -> Click,

Each object has it own set of properties, the visual look does not need to be true too the end result, but more of practical design.

The GUI can for example be tested by quick click on test button to compile and start the GUI.

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I would like to see something like this using MUI in AROS, thast is one of the tools that might increase developers...

Saimon69

Last edited by saimon69 on 31-Jul-2008 at 09:20 PM.

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@yoodoo2 + others

I'm making this kind of a tool already myself.

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I'd be interested, as long as it worked under OS3.9.

@NutsAboutAmiga

An XML / HTML type code - that converts into GUI would be a very powerful solution.
All in on this hand.

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@yoodoo2

Sounds like a great idea and I know several people have had it (the idea, that is) before. The trouble is that there is a lot more to it than a straight-line code (or macro) generation.

I've spent many long hours writing and debugging the awful Reaction macro strings. As soon as the window becomes even slightly complicated, the amount of code (and the comments that you have to add to make it maintainable) increases rapidly.

If you want any help with writing, debugging, analysing Autodocs or testing, count me in.

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@yoodoo2

I think this is a good idea too. I would never use it for any real project though since I'm a perfectionist with very strict coding rules, and I am also a do-it-all-yourself kind of guy
But sometimes I have felt I just wanted to throw something together quickly just because I need some GUI of some sort for an experiment or whatever and then needed to write it manually which takes time.

I once saw VisualBasic in action where someone just threw something together just to test a routine. I kind of envied the simplicity, although as I said I would never use it for a real project because of the uglyness of the generated code from such tools...

@tonyw

Have you ever use MUI?
I made a number of new ReAction macros and made them look almost identical to the MUI macros: "Child", "HGroup", etc. instead of the long unreadable RA macros. I find no problem what so ever builing RA GUIs manually regardless of the size. May be because of these macros though. My RA GUIs look almost like MUI in the code.

Last edited by Deniil715 on 01-Aug-2008 at 07:14 AM.

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@tonyw

I don't use (most of) the macros. PFTP's GUI, for example, is all raw taglist. I find as long as i keep it indented correctly, i can follow it fine, even when i have to cut and paste parts of it.

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@yoodoo2

Jamie at BitByBit was doing a great job with his AVD GUI Builder...

AVD GUI Builder


Too bad he put the project on hold to go work for Amiga Inc. I wonder what he is up to.


If anyone is looking for suggestions on how it should be done Jamie was on the right track.

@gregthecanuck

Yeah, I knew about Jamie's work, but as the project is on hold...

I'm thinking of something fairly simple atm - more aimed at (a) creating simple interfaces for command-line stuff and (b) allowing beginners to knock up something quickly so they can focus on actual coding.

As much as people might loathe Visual Basic etc, it does allow absolute newbies to create vaguely working guis very quickly and without any real hassle.

MindGUI would by its very nature be limited cos (a) The intention is to use the MindSpace code and just bang on some code-spewing out routines (b) my code should never really be looked on as even vaguely acceptable (so I would need help in that area) and (c) I doubt I'd maintain interest long enough add in proper support for all the options available, so some post-generation code tweaking would be needed.

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MindSpace: MindMaps and UML diagrams for OS4

We ran 5 Recursion Computer Fairs before hitting the exit condition

@yoodoo2

This would be great...

I would have thought this should be included in the SDK allready... GUI's are best created using something like this IMHO... just look at the Visual Studio line of products & Apple's own Interface Builder

It would definitely help me if I ever get access to an OS4 machine.

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@gregthecanuck

Quote:

gregthecanuck wrote: @yoodoo2 Jamie at BitByBit was doing a great job with his AVD GUI Builder... AVD GUI Builder Too bad he put the project on hold to go work for Amiga Inc. I wonder what he is up to. If anyone is looking for suggestions on how it should be done Jamie was on the right track.

AVD GUI Builder looked very promising. Having that project put on hold was a big disappointment.

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@Deniil715

MUI is of no use to me. Anything I write with MUI can't be included as part of OS4, only as a contribution or third-party stuff.

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>AVD GUI Builder looked very promising. Having that project put on hold was a big disappointment.

I wonder if he would release the sources, it might save yoodoo2 a fair amount of work?

So what target platform are we looking at here, ie. is this thing going to run on OS3.9?

@Minuous

I would say the target platform is OS4...

Although it would be great if it ran on OS3.9 too... thats not possible though right?

Or is OS3.9 Reaction and OS4.0 Reaction compatible?

Last edited by DBAlex on 01-Aug-2008 at 03:13 PM.

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@DBAlex

I don't know if there are many differences, but it's backwards compatible so if you generate code for the OS3.9 version of ReAction it should work fine on 4.0. I suspect the only differences are extra properties being available, and these differences could easily be handled by simply documenting them.

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Yes, one is a superset of the other, so support for both should be fairly easy.
But of course to be really useful the design app would need to run on O3.9, not just the generated program...