Re: UI - Period.

ASPick worked OK (google cdp for the source code of the original
version - and there's some documentation too I think). The basic
principles underlying it are sound - and I can't see them changing a
whole hell of a lot. It's bare bones - which I see as a good thing. It
relies on FlashCONNECT - and therefore D3 or mvBase (possibly UV if
there was a business case good enough for RD) - to interact with the
web-server. This could change - although I have no criticisms of FC to
make, having worked with it quite a lot. I do, however, lack confidence
in RD. They seem to be pulling a bit too hard on D3's t**s at the
moment.

When I wrote the first version I had a sound foundation in Pick but was
not up to making any assumptions whatever about web development, the
way web servers worked, the way browsers worked, which type of mark-up
would be used, what was and would be in the DOM, what javascript was or
would be capable of - no assumptions at all. It can all be
parameterised - as could a lot of things on the Pick side. Doing
everything in PickBasic on the *Database/Application server* (you don't
see those two words so closely overlapping outside of Pick btw - which
is a very important consideration in the light of this discussion, imo)
with parameter settings to control most things and standardised
subroutine calls for the rest (pre-, validation- and post-processing)
makes the same sense for GUI as it does for CUI - even more so given
the nature of the w3.org specifications.

I went quite a long way towards building a much improved version which
I have on a backup CD. What I was developing was an application to sit
on top of the bare bones to build applications with. I did a very rough
demo to a couple of ex-colleagues when it was still very much a
work-in-progress which didn't go too badly (considering) - but no one
else has seen any of the new improved version. I sure would like to
refine it some more - finish it, but due to circumstances which I am
only just beginning to get under control, I haven't been able to do
anything at all with it for quite a while.

One of the things that can be considered a parameter from the Pick side
of the fence is a javascript library of functions. Not every page will
need all of the functions - cutting down on the size of the post to the
client. The framework should be capable of assembling only those
functions relevant to the page. Easily but rarely done it seems.
There's more, much more, of course. One day...

Mike.

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