[Zope] ZopeTop, xul, etc.
   
    Philippe Jadin
     
    all@123piano.com
       
    Fri, 06 Dec 2002 13:23:29 +0100
    
    
  
Hi,
It seems there is currently work done on the future UI for zope3. I have 
some questions / comments on this (I hope it's the right list...)
- Isn't it strange to use html to create a modular user interface? As I 
see it, html is not an UI definition language.
- is there currently active projects to build a fat client interface for 
zope using xul or other technology?
If html is not the right tool for the job, and if xul is really as good 
as it seems :
- zope should use an intermediate layer between the core logic / 
datastructures and the UI. This layer could be something like xul
- xul is xml, and as such could be "converted" to xhtml. The conversion 
would reduce a lot the usability (you cannot do everything xul does with 
html), but at least there would be a single source of UI definition and 
multiple implementations (simple html, "flashy" dhtml, pure mozilla xul, 
etc...).
- xul can be used directely in mozilla, providing a very powerfull 
client-side interface. I think it can be seen as a rapid interface 
developement tool.
In short,
zope core -> "html ui"    is not too good
zope core -> "something" -> html     would be more modular.
the "something" could be xul... or wathever, the point is "there must be 
something" :)
What do you think?
Philippe Jadin
ps : is it possible to contact the people currently working at the 
infrae sprint (irc?)?