<< Bob Murdoch wrote:
But somebody somewhere is writing the translation from Delphi events to Javascript, right?  I assume this is ElevateSoft, but do you know how it is done?  100% is quite a claim, and I would love to believe it.
>>

That's really the job of the EWB compiler - you write in Object Pascal and it compiles it down to javascript.

There are really few things at play here:

- EWB object pascal is strongly typed so any issues related to that get caught by compiler itself at object pascal stage. So you have to declare variables, functions, events etc in the first place to use them. Javascript does not really limit you to any of that

- visual designer and components again reduce your risk since you're reusing existing and tested components and doing it visually (instead of hacking js/css or xml type files in a text editor).

- EWB is not case sensitive while Javascript is and EWB takes care of that for you - sounds trivial but combined with the dynamic nature of javascript i can personally say this can lead to some weird bugs

- finally if you look at the EWB framework and how it's built up it's object oriented design from ground up so not only does it provide good isolation of features, testing etc. but also the base features get used by almost everything higher up. Hence the changes of some random bug hiding in some rarely used place are reduced.

This does not mean one won't have bugs but risk goes way down due to framework design, use of object pascal and visual form designer and of course the compiler itself. All of us use the same compiler and framework so any issues would surface lot sooner since we have lots more usage than writing your own javascript.

You need to decide for yourself so just try out the trial or at least watch the video Tim did - the picture really is worth a 1000 words in this case.

Raul

FYI

In my business we have JS devs, ASP devs and MVC devs. On top of that, I use EWB. Whilst V1 certainly turned some heads, V2 has significantly closed the gap in terms of ultimate functionality and is streets ahead in terms of speed to market and reliability of deployed apps. It can now handle pretty much anything that we could ever require and the level of reuse is incredible. I am hoping to get some converts .........

Good luck and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Mark

Mark Brooks wrote:

>Good luck and I doubt you'll be disappointed.


So one last question - I see that there is a limited number of UI components supplied with EWB, as compared to what we can do with Visual Studio and let's say the DevExpress ASP.net controls.  How do you go about building even a remotely complex and compelling UI with EWB?

I haven't tried the product yet, so I appreciate you engaging with me.  My 'free' time is relatively non-existent today, so before I invest any time really evaluating the product I like to know what is possible with it.

Bob Murdoch wrote:

> But with EWB I can write code that is 100% good Javascript.
>
> But somebody somewhere is writing the translation from Delphi events
> to Javascript, right?  I assume this is ElevateSoft, but do you know
> how it is done?  100% is quite a claim, and I would love to believe
> it.

The key is of course that the Javascript is 100% good because it was
all automatically generated. It doesn't stop me having logic problems
in my EWB code, but I won't ever get the bracket on the wrong line and
cause my Javascript to fail. For me, the ability to work in a familiar
and high level language is very enabling.

--

Matthew Jones

Bob Murdoch wrote:

> So one last question - I see that there is a limited number of UI
> components supplied with EWB, as compared to what we can do with
> Visual Studio and let's say the DevExpress ASP.net controls.  How do
> you go about building even a remotely complex and compelling UI with
> EWB?

The components you get are the building blocks of the other controls
you might want. I made a fancy grid using panels and labels (documented
at
http://matthew-jones.com/making-a-prettier-grid-in-elevate-webbuilder/
)and others have made pop-up menus. EWB version 2 makes it easier to do
these things, but I haven't found it hard to do anything you might
actually need. Have a look at
http://www.banxia.com/resources/connect/userguide/index.html?rating.htm
and
http://www.banxia.com/resources/connect/userguide/index.html?preferencin
g.htm for some compound components that are not usual (the blocks,
scales, circles are all part of a repeated component make from the EWB
v1 components).

--

Matthew Jones

Bob,

<< But somebody somewhere is writing the translation from Delphi events to
Javascript, right?  I assume this is ElevateSoft, but do you know how it is
done?  100% is quite a claim, and I would love to believe it. >>

If the JS isn't 100% good as far as its syntax, then the JS parser in the
browser won't allow it.  That leaves bugs that fall into the runtime error
category, such as incorrect type conversions or naming issues where you end
up assigning a value to the wrong variable, etc.  EWB's compiler takes care
of those issues, all the way down to even making sure that event handlers
have the correct parameters and types when assigning an event handler to an
event property.  You simply can't compile an application with simple bugs in
it.

Also, EWB's runtime also makes sure that class instances are "cleaned" when
disposed of so that all references in member variables are removed.  This
makes the JS runtime much more stable by making the garbage collector's job
much, much easier and eliminating large GC cycles that can cause application
slowdowns or excessive memory consumption.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com