[Cuis] ContentPack
Juan Vuletich
juan at jvuletich.org
Thu Jan 3 07:37:11 CST 2013
Hi Hannes,
H. Hirzel wrote:
> In the meantime I found out that
>
>
> ContentPack seems to be a persistence mechanism for a dictionary which
> may contain other dictionaries and instances of Form and ColorForm.
>
> Forms are written out to the file system as *.png files and ColorForms
> are written as *.bmp files.
>
> Is this correct?
>
> --Hannes
>
>
Yes it is correct. It is a bit more than that, though. Forms (and
potentially other media types) can exist in three forms:
1) As external files, such as jpg, png, etc. This is the representation
we need to use external tools (such as image processing apps, cameras,
scanners, web, etc) to work on them.
2) As methods. Non human readable, base-64 encoded binary data. We need
this to be able to include such stuff in the update stream, or in
packages. After we update an image, we usually delete these methods,
just keeping 3).
3) Live objects in the image, for example, stored in class variables.
This is to make use of them in Cuis.
Most of the time, we use 3). But we need 2) for the update stream. We
also need 1) sometimes to work on them. ContentPack supports the
conversion between these 3 formats. The implementation is quite simple.
What is really great is that Casey realized we need some tool to move
comfortably between these 3 representations. And he also implemented it.
Please grab http://www.jvuletich.org/Cuis/CuisUpdatesUpTo1511.zip and
take a look at updates 966, 967 and 968.
Maybe it is time for a bit more documentation, and usage examples...
Cheers,
Juan Vuletich
> On 1/2/13, H. Hirzel <hannes.hirzel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello Juan and Casey
>>
>> Is the ContentPack something like Fuel?
>> http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel
>> (BTW it is now available for Squeak as well, see announcement on the
>> Squeak list)?
>>
>>
>>
>> I found class 'ContentPack', I copy it in below. The nice thing is
>> that it only has 11 instance methods and 7 class methods. However most
>> of the comment I do not understand.
>>
>> I copy in the class comment below.
>> I put in comments in uppercase.
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Hannes
>>
>>
>> ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>> ContentPack lets you read in and write out the (supported files in
>> the) contents of a directory on your file system. It also allows you
>> to trivially create "messenger" subclasses that capture the
>> information containted (TYPO) in these directory trees, including any
>> implicit communication that's there in the structure of the directory
>> hierarchy itself, which are captured in your changes file.
>>
>> NOTE: I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS LANGUAGE. EXAMPLES of supported file types?
>>
>>
>> You can then file out a change set that contains a representation of
>> the (supported file/object types and directory structurein) TYPO the
>> stuff on your disk, or in your image. This subclass is a dummy which
>> ContentPack compiles methods into containing base 64 encoded data. You
>> can load this into another image, as long as that image has
>> ContentPack loaded. The filed in class can then recreate the
>> ContentPack on the other end with the media files and structure
>> intact.
>>
>> The current implementation is based on #storeString, but the plan is
>> to change that to SmartRefStream in the long run to support
>> serializing things like morphs.
>>
>> ContentPack instances hang onto the actual tree of media objects.(I DO
>> NOT UNDERSTAND) It has a nice simple EDSL ???? that just interprets
>> an array of strings from beginning to end as a "path" to a file
>> (really a series of dictionary lookups to a Smalltalk object, wherin
>> the dictionaries mirror the structure of what was on the disk, sans
>> unsupported files.) This mechanism will likely change a little bit at
>> some point,
>>
>>
>> ContentPack came into the world a little faster than I expected, as I
>> ended up using it to send some icons back in time to fix the Cuis
>> update stream without having to sort my changes all over again. As
>> such it had some unusual design pressures... it had to be able to
>> carry information in and out of both the change set stream and the
>> filesystem, as well as function in a slightly earlier (unreleased)
>> version of Cuis than it was written in, and not break anything on it's
>> way back up through the build to head.
>>
>> SENDING ICONS BACK IN TIME????
>>
>>
>> The code, in particular the way things are named, has not settled yet,
>> and that's why this comment contains no code examples. Use with care
>> and read the code first, for now.
>>
>> IN THE MEANTIME THE CODE SEEMS TO HAVE SETTLED OTHERWISE IT WOULD NOT
>> BE IN CORE.
>>
>>
>> Currently, .bmp import and .png import are implemented, and both can
>> be exported. Anything you can import, you can also shuffle into a
>> change set. Plans are in the works to support audio, change sets, and
>> text files.
>>
>> PLEASE DO SO. GIVEN THE FACT THAT THIS CLASS ONLY HAS 18 METHODS THIS
>> SHOULD NOT BE A LARGE EFFORT.
>>
>> I'll support video if someone has a good importer, exporter, and
>> player under the MIT license that'll work under Cuis.
>>
>> Currently, objects are serialized into single methods, which works for
>> small icons, but likely doesn't work well (if at all) for larger
>> files. My intent is to add some behavior that breaks up large objects
>> into smaller chunks so that this becomes a non-issue. I'll likely get
>> to that when I've removed most of the repetitive subtle variations of
>> the same recursive tree walking visitor-trick from the code, and
>> renamed everything. I think in essence this class is slightly smaller
>> than it is as represented currently.
>>
>> Hopefully I will be able to explain all of this better once I've
>> clarified the code a bit so that I can show off some examples.
>>
>> YES. EXAMPLES WILL HELP A LOT :-)
>>
>> - cbr
>>
>> On 1/2/13, Juan Vuletich <juan at jvuletich.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Folks,
>>>
>>> I think it should work ok. I don't recall doing any changes that would
>>> obviously affect it.
>>>
>>> BTW, a bit more of documentation wouldn't hurt, but the code is all
>>> there, and there's a reasonable class comment. It is just a matter of
>>> learning and playing a bit with it.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Juan Vuletich
>>>
>>> Casey Ransberger wrote:
>>>
>>>> Oh wow and ouch. I wrote it. My fault. I didn't document it. I
>>>> expected, after I'd used it to muck with the time stream, that we'd
>>>> throw it away once the paradox was resolved, but Juan liked it, and
>>>> wanted to keep it.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, it's my dog and I've been terrible about feeding it. I should
>>>> fix that.
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 9:58 PM, H. Hirzel <hannes.hirzel at gmail.com
>>>> <mailto:hannes.hirzel at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello Casey and Juan
>>>>
>>>> Good to see you active on this list.
>>>> How to I try out the ContentPack in Cuis 4.1?
>>>>
>>>> Casey mentions in another thread that it might not work anymore.
>>>>
>>>> --Hannes
>>>>
>>>> On 12/30/12, Juan Vuletich <juan at jvuletich.org
>>>> <mailto:juan at jvuletich.org>> wrote:
>>>> > Hi Hannes,
>>>> >
>>>> > You might be thinking on Casey's ContentPack, that is part of
>>>> Cuis. It
>>>> > allows us to use only change sets for updating Cuis, while at
>>>> the same
>>>> > time, using external tools for editing resources (like .bmp,
>>>> .png and
>>>> > jpg files, etc).
>>>> >
>>>> > Cheers,
>>>> > Juan Vuletich
>>>> >
>>>> > H. Hirzel wrote:
>>>> .....
>>>> >>
>>>> >> If I remember well you once did a package for managing
>>>> resources, right?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Where is it?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> --Hannes
>>>> >>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Casey Ransberger
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
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