Re: Recommendations of web developmentarchitecture/toolfor diverse i5 access...

Aaron B. wrote:
Or what is it that makes you put it into the framework category?

Sorry for the length of this post. I've included an RPG sample to illustrate
the Renaissance framework, and added my comments at the end. Note that the
following RPG procedures are generating HTML and JavaScript on a page:

****** Renaissance example *********

// Put a button to allow the user to cancel


WRP_AddButton('cancel':'DataForm':'':'*CANCEL');




// Determine the active pane from the session

ActTab =PR_GetActTab(me:gTabContainer);




// Fixed width labels


PR_FixedWidthLabels(150);




// Start an input form


PR_StartDataForm();






// Output in a simple tab dialog widget


PR_StartTabDialog(gTabContainer:lActTab:


'TAB1':


'':


'HELLOWORLD':


'09':


'TAB2':


'':


'RPGCODE':


'10':


'TAB3':


'':


'NOTES':


'11'


);




PR_StartTabPane('TAB1');


// Start an input section that will contain one column (1 column = label
and an input field)

PR_StartInputSection(1);


// Start input line for XUSNAME


PR_StartInputLine();


// Output user name


PR_PromptField('XUSER':'XUSNAME');


PR_EndInputLine();


// Start input line for XUSTYPE


PR_StartInputLine();


// Output user type


PR_PromptField('XUSER':'XUSTYPE');


PR_EndInputLine();


PR_EndInputSection();


PR_EndTabPane();




PR_StartTabPane('TAB2');


.....


PR_EndTabPane();




PR_StartTabPane('TAB3');


.....


PR_EndTabPane();




PR_EndTabDialog();




PR_EndDataForm();




// Now shove out the hidden forms and the associated functions


CGI_AddScript('DataForm':'fAction');






********* my comments ***********

Microsoft's UI components render as HTML and JavaScript too, but Microsoft's
approach begins with a design surface and a palette of widgets that you drag
and drop onto a form. When shown in the code view, Microsoft's UI widgets look
like a mixture of HTML and XML.

Later when the code is compiled, Microsoft generates a lot of object and method
code, perhaps similar to the Renaissance code, but developers don't see it or
need to work with it. Microsoft's approach is more intuitive and productive.

The server-side code that gets generated by Microsoft is enormous. And other
plumbing on the server required to support .Net applications is even bigger.
It was so resource intensive in the beginning that Microsoft had to come up
with a means of preserving view state so that incremental updates after the
initial page could be served. That opened up another can of worms, but that's
another subject...

Why am I rambling about this? I don't like either Microsoft's approach, or
Renaissance's. But we were talking about UI component frameworks.

Nathan.