[Cuis] How layout works in Cuis morphic (Re: More...morphic)

[Juan Vuletich]

On 4/26/2014 10:06 AM, nacho wrote:
> Hannes,
> Yes it was very useful. Browsing GitHub -especially yours and Ken's
> repositories- I've discovered a lot of stuff that help me to understand a
> little more about Morphic in Cuis.
> The package that you mention was very helpful in seeing how LayoutMorph
> actually works.
> Thanks for doing it.

I concur. Thanks folks for your cool stuff!

> My idea is to have a very good understanding of how Morphic works in Cuis,
> and after that try to document an make examples. Usually, I agree with Juan
> that Smalltalk is self documenting. The power to see how a method from the
> Class Library is implemented is invaluable. However, Morphic is kind of
> tricky and as Cuis has a very stable core, for me it makes sense to have it
> documented.

Agreed. Some documentation would be very welcome. In any case, class 
comments, method comments, example methods (usually class side) and 
tests can also be considered documentation, as they illustrate some 
interesting detail.

> I usually take a look at how morphic works on Squeak and then try to figure
> out how the same code can be rewritten to run on Cuis.

This is most useful if you are porting code. If you're writing new code 
for Cuis, just figuring out Cuis is simpler and enough.

> However, the
> implementations are quiet different in general. Also, Pharo seems to be
> moving away from Morphic. Not in the sense that is taking it out, but in the
> sense that it has applied a new Framework on top of it -Spec-. Morphic still
> works but it seems it will not be the defacto framework for UI building.
> But I rather learn Morphic and I also like the fact that in Cuis Morphic has
> been simplified. One has to figure out how to build, for instance, a
> SimpleSwitchMorph just to run some Squeak code, but that's ok. I guess that
> if one gets the knowledge of how Morphic works on Cuis, it can be
> re-implemented as a package and not as a core feature.

In the case of aSwitch, maybe 'PluggableButtonMorph example openInWorld' 
is useful. I just found it by looking for Switch... Maybe the menus for 
setting font size in a Text Editor are relevant too...


> Thanks again for posting your examples and your work in progress in GitHub.
> I hope one day I can repay the Cuis community with some nice intro to
> Morphic on Cuis.
> Best
> Nacho

:)

BTW, we could organize a (very informal) event for those in Buenos Aires 
or very close... Just some beers and laptops. What do you think?

Cheers,
Juan Vuletich