- Realistic Goals (was: Tables filling forms etc.)

From: CFB Software <"CFB>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 11:54:37 +0930

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy
> Behalf Of ????? ????????
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 May 2006 7:15 PM
> To: BlackBox Mailing List
> Subject: [BlackBox] - Tables filling forms etc.
>
> Chris Burrows wrote:
> > The example I gave the other day is
> > typical: I have a table on a form, when I resize the form,
> I want the
> > table to continue to fill the form so that I can see as
> much of it as
> > possible, rather than remaining as a fixed size in the top

> left hand
> > corner of the window. In Delphi, VB, C# etc. this is achieved with
> > just *one* assignment statement. How can you do this in BB?
>
> you have brought this 'alignment' issue up again, so this
> time I want to answer.
>
> As far as I understand BCF ideology, OMS are trying to keep
> things small and simple. To achieve that, they recommend
> composition of components instead of extension.
>
> In application to your sore table alignment, I would think
> the following would be the proper approach to keep the BCF
> spirit: create a wrapper view that would be aware of all and
> any alignment options you can think of, teach that view to
> interoperate with its container. This way you get a solution
> that has the following advantages:
>

Anton,

Thank you for your suggestion - it certainly is an excellent way to proceed.
However, my main intention in quoting this example was not to solve one
specific problem but to try to illustrate why I thought that BlackBox cannot
be considered as a competitor to Delphi, Visual Studio etc. for developing
rich GUI desktop applications. Rightly or wrongly, users of such tools have
grown to expect to get this sort of functionality (and countless other
similar tasks) 'out of the box'.

Consequently, I believe that any efforts to try to 'win over' users of such
tools to BlackBox are futile. All of the energy and enthusiasm, which I'm
pleased to say is very evident amongst this present group of BlackBox
supporters would be better directed towards more realistic goals. The
difficult bit is deciding what they should be!

In my own work, I have found the 'CARVER matrix' technique to be a useful
tool in helping to decide in an objective way what are realistic goals:

http://www.solien.com/Article.aspx?path=%2fcontent%2farticles%2fProject_Mana
gement_Warfare_v1.0.htm

If we can come up with a list of possible projects e.g.

* Port BlackBox to Linux
* Port BlackBox to .NET
* Develop an 'automatic' tool for building optimal-sized freestanding
BlackBox applications
* Use XML as a portable document-transfer medium
* Develop a BlackBox version of the OakWood libraries
* Develop a promotional website
etc. etc.

then the use of this technique might help to determine how best to focus all
of our energies and resources. Of course there is always the risk that we'll
end up with a 'talkfest' and nothing will get done so in the meantime I'll
also be pursuing my own pet projects!

P.S. These are just off the top of my head. A project such as 'Port BlackBox
to Linux' is far too vague to mean anything - some constraints have to be
identified first before any sort of feasibility can be estimated.

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.cfbsoftware.com
 

 

--- BlackBox
--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy



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Received on Thu May 25 2006 - 04:24:37 UTC

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