This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: Where Are We Now - Part 2
Feed Title: Pollock
Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/pollock-rss.xml
Feed Description: Pollock - the next VW GUI
Now that we know where we are as far as Beta 3, here are the major points of what is left to do for Production 1
Widgets
SpinButton
MenuButton
ResizingSplitter
GroupBox
Slider
Divider
ProgressBar
ClickWidget
Region
Frames
RelationalFrame
Models
TextConverter
BufferedValue
AccessAdaptor
Behavior
DragDrop
DoubleBuffered & Smart Display Update
Frames
RelationalFrame
Motif & MacOSX Look and Feel
Grid
DialogWindow
Toolbar Panes
TreeView
TabControl
SpinButton
MenuButton
GroupBox
Slider
Of course, there are a lot of miscellaneous behaviors and features that need to be completed such as adding Password entry, "Calculator" entry and Formatted input for the InputField, etc.
As of today of the above, the following are already done:
SpinButton
MenuButton
ResizingSplitter
GroupBox
Slider
RelationalFrame
TextConverter
BufferedValue
AccessAdaptor
DragDrop
RelationalFrame
As you see, it has been a very productive couple of months since I put Beta 3 to bed on October 3rd. In fact, the hardest widgets are now done, with only the Divider, ProgressBar, ClickWidget (a widget with a DisplayImage with action symbols triggered for specified areas of the graphic) and the rather goofy Region (an Elliptical or Rectangular area with optional color fill and outline) panes left to do.
The two major things remaining to be done (besides the above four widgets) are the Motif and MacOSX Look & Feel for those widgets listed above, and the DoubleBuffer & Smart Display Update behavior
This is NOT to say that when the above (with all the miscellaneous behaviors and features) is done, that Pollock is ready to replace Wrapper. What it means is that when all of that is done, then Pollock is ready to reside as a supported framework, in the base system. The words "ready to reside" are important. Pollock and Wrapper can and do co-exist quite nicely in the system at the same time. They are fully separate frameworks; you can't use panes from one in the other.
The goal of Production 1 is to get Pollock in a state as a Framework to be "Ready For Primetime." The goals of following milestones (currently there are 2 planned, Production 2 and Production 3, but there may be more) is to make it ready to REPLACE Wrapper.
So, what is required for Pollock in order for it to be ready to replace Wrapper (besides the above)?:
Tools
All of VisualWorks (Browsers, Inspectors, Debuggers, etc.) Uses Pollock
Pollock UI Painter
Pollock Menu Editor
Pollock Toolbar Editor
Pollock Image Editor
Pollock HotKey Editor
Migration Utilities
Translator for Wrapper ApplicationModels to Pollock UserInterfaces
Translator for Wrapper Views to Pollock Panes
Translator for Wrapper Specifications to Pollock Specifications
Translator for Wrapper Application GUI Code to Pollock GUI Code
Documentation
Business Graphics for Pollock (BGOK)
Such a short list... no less daunting for its brevity. <sigh>
Next week (December 9 - 11, 2003) the Engineering team is getting together to plan our next release(s), as well as talk about the mid and distant future for VisualWorks... Not just the GUI. My job is to fit Pollock, and my future plans for the GUI, into those near and far term plans. As it is with all things like this, every one of these planning meetings (which we have shortly after every release) forces all projects to make some adjustments.
I have always had some BIG ideas for the mid an distant future, and we in Engineering have discussed them all to some extent over the last few years (Pollock itself started as just one of these BIG ideas). Some of these ideas may actually start to become plans and projects (one almost for sure) to follow Pollock. The world of GUIs is constantly moving ahead, and the VisualWorks GUI needs to catch up. Pollock is just the first step. The GUI parts of technologies such as .NET, Longhorn (XAML and Avalon), MacOSX, XOrg and freedesktop.org all have an effect on where we need to go.
So, after our meeting, I'll be back to give you a peek into the future, both of Pollock and beyond
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