Couple weekends ago I installed Squeak 3.2 on a Linux box and started tinkering with some simple enhancements to FileList to help me move change sets over from my Macintosh. I wanted to ³stay inside Squeak². After going through the steps of writing some simple, but useful code, I realized there may be Squeak developers out there who would benefit from the ³process² I used. Calling it a process may be generous.
So the following weekend I tossed the code out and began again but this time wrote an HTML based document, with lots of pictures, to describe what I did. The idea being it might help someone. The alternative may be unforgivable. :)
Given all that, you are welcome to look over
http://w3.one.net/~swessels/pages/steve/squeak/copyFilesTutorial/index.html
Constructive feedback is welcome.
- Steve
Stephan B. Wessels wrote:
Constructive feedback is welcome.
I really liked it, although I didn't yet have time to read all of it in detail. I especially appreciate the discussion of SUnit tests.
I wonder how hard it would be to make a NextStep style file browser with full drag-and-drop...
Thanks for the hard work,
Tommy
On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Tommy Thorn wrote:
I wonder how hard it would be to make a NextStep style file browser with full drag-and-drop...
Can't be *that* hard! This is one of the things I'll eventually do, if no one else does. Could be a week or a year until I get around to it though, but I'd really like to be able to manage all of my files from within Squeak.
Regards, Aaron
Aaron Reichow :: UMD ACM Pres :: http://www.d.umn.edu/~reic0024/ "the only difference it makes if some dust on the clay" :: atmosphere
Aaron J Reichow wrote:
On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Tommy Thorn wrote:
I wonder how hard it would be to make a NextStep style file browser with full drag-and-drop...
Can't be *that* hard! This is one of the things I'll eventually do, if no one else does. Could be a week or a year until I get around to it though, but I'd really like to be able to manage all of my files from within Squeak.
Also keep in mind that there's (the equisitely named) FileList2, which has some extra features, including a modal folder picker, and might be a better base to build from.
(And there's also PluggableFileList which works with MVC, but seems to have problems in Morphic.)
- Doug Way
This has been good feedback.
I think it's important to keep in focus that I was not and am not proposing an elegant solution to file management in Squeak. This was merely an exercise for Squeak newbies (with some reasonable level of Smalltalk experience).
FileList2 is a nice tool.
It could be a really "fun" project to do a NeXT browser...
- Steve
On 9/26/02 12:30 PM, "Doug Way" dway@riskmetrics.com wrote:
<snip>
Also keep in mind that there's (the equisitely named) FileList2, which has some extra features, including a modal folder picker, and might be a better base to build from.
(And there's also PluggableFileList which works with MVC, but seems to have problems in Morphic.)
- Doug Way
"Stephan B. Wessels" swessels@one.net is claimed by the authorities to have written:
Constructive feedback is welcome.
Congratulations on makinga start on one of the more important things we need in order to be able to forget the host OS and their idiocies.
My two pennorth follows. The most basic file handling widget should be able to list the files in a directory (including contained directories of course) and allow you to:- + select one or more items + find info about a selected file/directory (size, permisions, whatever) + change info (usually name or permissions, some OS's allow others) + 'open' the file/directory in some sense: directories typically would open by making a new widget or possibly 'zooming in' within the current one. Personally I despise the ugly cumbersome tree type views from windows etc. Files would need some type/extension based rules to decide what to do. + drag selected item(s) to another widget, thus effecting a copy or move (typically a modifier key might be used to choose between the two)
Note that directories can often contain hundreds or thousands of files, so an efficient listing algorithm (several improvements to pluggable list morphs etc have been suggested recently) is crucial.
Useful extensions would be to allow more varieties of display (icons, icons with elided names, ordering, purely text lists, whatever), dragging to 'applications', net awareness for access to servers or other users, all that stuff.
I'd say the key point is making a good functional link between the OS idea of where files are and drag/drop manipulation. Pretty displays and so on are much less important until the functionality is really solid.
tim
Hi Steve : I like you example and ask you permission for translate to Spanish. Currently I have a little unorganized ³site² http://edgardec.fwd.com.ar/ for beginners and want add more examples like yours. Edgar
Wow! Thanks. This was really great. Once I have time to go back over it again I will try to offer some constructive criticism.
=jason
On Wed, 2002-09-25 at 20:50, Stephan B. Wessels wrote:
Couple weekends ago I installed Squeak 3.2 on a Linux box and started tinkering with some simple enhancements to FileList to help me move change sets over from my Macintosh. I wanted to ³stay inside Squeak². After going through the steps of writing some simple, but useful code, I realized there may be Squeak developers out there who would benefit from the ³process² I used. Calling it a process may be generous.
So the following weekend I tossed the code out and began again but this time wrote an HTML based document, with lots of pictures, to describe what I did. The idea being it might help someone. The alternative may be unforgivable. :)
Given all that, you are welcome to look over
http://w3.one.net/~swessels/pages/steve/squeak/copyFilesTutorial/index.html
Constructive feedback is welcome.
- Steve
squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org