[UI] ToolBuilder

[Colin Putney]

On Sep 8, 2007, at 9:35 PM, tim Rowledge wrote:

>> However, by fileout, I really meant "snapshot in a Monticello
>> repository". I can easily snapshot and version code, but not
>> anything else using the supported tools that I know of.
> Good point. I don't know the answer to that either. I'd guess that =20
> it wouldn't be to difficult to make MC handle binary files but it =20
> might be harder to make sure the tools don;t go nuts; diffing =20
> binary files is often pointless unless you decode them before the =20
> comparison. I've cc:d Colin and perhaps he can offer some opinion?

No need to cc, I'm on the list. :-)

It wouldn't be that hard to extend MC to allow it to store arbitrary =20
byte arrays along with the code. The hairiest bit would be defining =20
where these things live in the image and arranging for them to have =20
identity so that MC can compare what's in the package with what's in =20
the image and make changes if necessary. MC doesn't do any =20
intelligent diffing between two versions of the same resource - =20
method, class definition or whatever - it just presents the two =20
versions and lets the developer choose which one he wants.

On the other hand, it's probably even easier just to store bytes =20
inside methods the way we've been doing forever - sending fonts and =20
icons out in the update stream, for example. I'm doing that now to =20
manage web resources in OmniBrowser - Javascript, CSS and images. I =20
have some code that takes a Form and compiles it into a method that =20
looks like this (modulo line wrapping by my email client):

arrowUp
	^ MIMEDocument
		contentType: 'image/png'
		content:

'=89PNG
=1A
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IEND=AEB`=82'


Text files are similar, and I use Lukas' FTP server to let me edit =20
them with a conventional text editor.

Given a way to serialize an arrangement of widgets and then =20
rematerialize them, it should be pretty straightforward to store that =20=

as source code.

Colin