[Seaside] odds and ends

[Wilkes Joiner]

On 6/29/05, radoslav hodnicak <rh at 4096.sk> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 29 Jun 2005, Avi Bryant wrote:
> > - I've earlier mentioned the Prototype javascript library as something
> > we might look at supporting.  Script.aculo.us is a recently announced
> > superset of Prototype that's even more compelling; particularly nice
> > is its support for drag and drop (allowing you to replicate, say, the
> > drag-and-drop reordering of todo items in Backpack, or the slick
> > shopping cart of the Panic.com store).  I've committed a very brief
> > start at a package to wrap this for easy Seaside use to the
> > SqueakSource repository, but there's lots more to be done there if
> > someone wants to pick it up.
> 
> I'm undecided on this, mostly because I don't really understand what these
> scripts do. I'm using some xmlHttpRequest stuff now, which uses
> javascript, but it's basically just callbacks. I like and want to keep all
> logic in smalltalk. I don't know what to think about actions like
> reordering of items *in* browser and then somehow update the server state,
> it doesn't sound very good to me

The big deal about Prototype and its kin is the simplicity it provides
for integrating Javascript into your applications.  It wouldn't be to
hard to imagine an AJAX ordered list component.  In theory, as a
developer I just have to write some smalltalk code to use it and just
really on the ready made javascript.

Javascript has had a bad rap for a couple of valid reasons. 
Primarily, web monkeys (I mean that in an endearing way) writing
crappy javascript functions and the problems with cross browser
support.  Prototype alleviates a lot of that pain.  I've gone from "no
javascript" to "we can use javascript for that" simply because of
Prototype.  Check out its integration with Ruby On Rails.  I would
love to see that simplicity of use in Seaside.  Livecallbacks are a
good start, but there is more that can be done.

- Wilkes