Was wondering whether there are any plans to move EWB beyond the mere
desktop-lookalike user interface.

Like, wrappers for SVG? Or allow developers to build interactive
wrappers around basic SVG elements...?

Just asking. Probably too much work involved.

I've never really looked before, but the IDE has the option to create a forms based
("visual") or non-visual project. The "Main menu and toolbar" help topic covers the
difference, and the latter seems to give you what you want. Of course the UI is all
down to you then...

/Matthew Jones/

"Dominique Willems" wrote:

>>Was wondering whether there are any plans to move EWB beyond the mere
>>desktop-lookalike user interface.

I guess that it depends on how far you want to go Dominique?

Our core web application (Castrum Portal) utilises an extremely "flat" interface with no concept of traditional "windows" or "dialogs" or even "grids" per se. It uses forms behind the scenes, but never displays border or caption etc. Most of the GUI is created at run-time to achieve this effect.

I have attached a sample screenshot and more can be found at www.castrum.co.uk. We also embed third-party functionally (e.g. multi-file uploading and word-processing).

So far it has worked extremely well.

Regards
Mark

Good point - I too have done applications that have no "forms" but code it to be
"responsive" to the browser size, no borders, etc. I color all the desktop and
forms white too.

/Matthew Jones/

Mark Brooks wrote:
> I guess that it depends on how far you want to go Dominique?

Am buried in a desktop project at the moment, but EWB keeps fascinating
me, especially for any future browser applications. However, I'd want
these applications to have the most advanced UI a browser can muster,
and not imitate anything Windows-like, especially forms.

I'm looking for a vector-based interface, which could be based on SVG
components. You know, scaling, blurring, rotating, anti-aliasing, the
lot. No drop-downs, edit boxes or grids. And one single page with an
adapting interface, not separate forms.

I know EWB could handle this, but I suppose it'd take quite some VCL to
implement properly.


> Our core web application (Castrum Portal) utilises an extremely
> "flat" interface with no concept of traditional "windows" or
> "dialogs" or even "grids" per se.

Exactly! Flatness is it.


> It uses forms behind the scenes,
> but never displays border or caption etc. Most of the GUI is created
> at run-time to achieve this effect.

Then I suppose I'm asking if we could expect some design-time IDE
integration for such features.

Dominique,

> Was wondering whether there are any plans to move EWB beyond the mere
> desktop-lookalike user interface.

I am just working on a movie-collection website and a matching app for
android. Have a look at the attached screenshot.

Regards Uli

Matthew Jones wrote:
> I've never really looked before, but the IDE has the option to create
> a forms based ("visual") or non-visual project. The "Main menu and
> toolbar" help topic covers the difference, and the latter seems to
> give you what you want. Of course the UI is all down to you then...

Yes. Then I suppose I'm asking if one could expect some IDE integration
for a vectorial "flat" interface in the future.

I know EWB is originally conceived to develop traditional
Windows-looking and behaving applications inside a browser, but I think
it's selling itself very short, if that's the right expression. I
rather mean it's deliberately limiting itself to a very tiny segment,
while it could have the World.

IMHO.

Uli Becker wrote:
> I am just working on a movie-collection website and a matching app
> for android. Have a look at the attached screenshot.

Very nice, of course. But it could be achieved using traditional
Windows-like components, with a bit of skinning. Does it scale to the
browser window?

Dominique,

> Very nice, of course. But it could be achieved using traditional
> Windows-like components, with a bit of skinning. Does it scale to the
> browser window?

On a mobile device using viewport: yes. Otherwise no.

Uli

>> Very nice, of course. But it could be achieved using traditional
>> Windows-like components, with a bit of skinning. Does it scale to the
>> browser window?

For what it's worth, I also have guys who are using Microsoft MVC combined with Twitter Bootstrap to build modern responsive web apps. The apps themselves look fantastic and I have had to build my own EWB framework to come even close to matching their capabilities. However, it's also the case that my code in general seems much more robust, probably since I'm using a more structured language and have very little need to drop into the evil that is (IMHO) JavaScript. So, on balance, I'd like more "responsive" features in the EWB framework, but it still remains a really excellent tool.