[Cuis] ContentPack
Juan Vuletich
juan at jvuletich.org
Thu Jan 3 09:56:43 CST 2013
I added my comments below to the class comment. It still needs more
care, but it is a start.
Feel free to send comments, enhancements, etc.
Cheers,
Juan Vuletich
Juan Vuletich wrote:
> 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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>>>>> http://jvuletich.org/mailman/listinfo/cuis_jvuletich.org
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Casey Ransberger
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Cuis mailing list
>>>>> Cuis at jvuletich.org
>>>>> http://jvuletich.org/mailman/listinfo/cuis_jvuletich.org
>>>>>
>>>>>
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