Re: [boost] Re: Re: GUI library - another one

From: David Turner (dkturner_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-04 12:02:38

Angus Leeming wrote:
> David Turner wrote:
>> window w("Test");
>> button b = w.spawn("button");
>> b.label("Click me");
>> w.contain(b);
>
> Excuse me butting in, but this is redundant information:
>   // b belongs to w
>   button b = w.spawn("button");
>   // b belongs to w
>   w.contain(b);

No, they are _not_ redundant.  Writing "w.contain(b)" doesn't mean b now
belongs to w.  It says nothing about ownership.  What it says is that w
_contains_ b.

On the other hand, w.spawn("button") says something about the genealogy of
the button.  It says it's the spawn of the window, and therefore belongs
_somewhere_ in the window's hierarchy tree.  Not necessarily as the direct
child of the window.

I should point out that that windows can only contain one widget. 
However, that widget might be a grid widget.  This is an auto-sizing
framework.

> It seems to me that you're trying to fit two concepts into one box,
> the widget and its properties. All this jumping through hoops occurs
> because you're trying to manipulate a "widget that must belong to a
> window" when in actual fact you're interested only in its properties:

Yes I am trying to fit two concepts into one box, but those aren't the two
concepts in question.  The sticking point is that the window is both a
container of a widget, *and* the factory for all widgets that will
ultimately be contained within the window's widget hierarchy.

Again, I appeal to the W3C DOM:

body = document.createElement("body");
document.appendChild(body);
div = document.createElement("div");
body.appendChild(div);

Regards
David Turner