[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] [ANN] Sun XUL (XML UI) Pink Paper Goes Live
Hi, Don't worry, I won't linger. Allow me to break the latest news from the JavaWon 2003 Dev Pow Wow as reported in the XUL News Wire story. Here we go: Amy Fowler (a blond bombshell working for Sun if I dare to say (*)) wrote a whitepaper titled "Java Desktop Network Components (JDNC): Boosting Interactivity and Productivity at the Same Time" for the new javadesktop.org site (part of the new java.net Sun Community initiative). Amy kicks off the paper with a Jakob Nielsen quote: "Billions of dollars are wasted every year in lost productivity as people wait for Web pages to perform duties that could have been handled better by a 1984 Macintosh-style graphical user interface application." and jumps in: <quote> The problem is that the primary content delivered to browsers is HTML, a markup language that wasn't designed for implementing user interfaces. In the early days of Web applications, users were so enamored with the basic capability of accomplishing tasks from their browser that they put up with the archaic "get a new page on every click" user model. But the Web isn't new anymore and for many applications, users want the degree of interactivity they get with traditional clients. Web application developers have tried to mitigate the inherent limitations of HTML forms by using technologies like JavaScript and dynamic HTML to achieve higher degrees of user interaction, but have discovered the end result to be unwieldy and challenging to maintain as the complexity of the application grows. There has got to be a better option. </quote> You've got it babe. Check out XUL. Believe it or not Amy comes up with a different answer. Guess what? <quote> What do we need to break the HTML browser application juggernaut? Java. </quote> Come again, Sweetie. <quote> Leveraging XML for Configuration. JDNC defines a simple XML schema for configuring JDNC components for desktop clients. What sets this apart from other XML-based UI technologies is that it is neither a toolkit-level markup language, such as XUL, nor a general purpose markup language for Swing, such as SwingML. This is not to say that these technologies do not have their place, but the primary design goal for JDNC is simplicity. The JDNC configuration schema sits at the application level, which enables developers to more quickly construct Java desktop clients precisely because the schema is less complex. It leverages Swing, but does not require the developer to have expertise in either GUI programming or Swing. The schema will enable a solid range of sensible layout capabilities without providing the infinite layout options of layout managers. Does this mean that some clients cannot be constructed using JDNC? Yes, and that's exactly the point. JDNC guides the developer by narrowing the choices to a well-honed subset of what's possible. Those who need finer control and flexibility can already use Swing or one of the general purpose markup languages to build just about anything. </quote> I hear you. And here's how JDNC looks like: <jdnc-app> <data id="bugdata"> <source url="bugs.txt"/> <format mimetype="plain text"> <columns> <column id="bugid"> <link> </column> <column id="priority"> <integer minimum="1" maximum="5"/> </column> <column id="date"> <date format="EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy"/> </column> <column id="state"> <string> <values> <value>dispatched</value> <value>fixed</value> <value>closed</value> </values> </string> </column> <column id="synopsis"/> <columns> </format> </data> <table id="bugtable" sortable="true" draggable="true" grid="true"> <statusbar/> <rows margin="20"> </rows> <columns> <column dataref="bugdata.bugid" label="BugID" alignment="center"> <sample>8888888</sample> </column> <column dataref="bugdata.priority" label="Pri"> <sample>1</sample> </column> <column dataref="bugdata.synopsis" label="Synopsis" editable="true"> <sample>This bug is bad and I want you to definitely fix it!</sample> </column> <column dataref="bugdata.date" label="Dispatched"> <format>MMM dd, yyyy</format> </column> <column dataref="bugdata.state" label="State" editable="true" alignment="center"> <sample>dispatched</sample> </column> </columns> </table> </jdnc-app> Sun plans to roll out an early Beta in fall under an open-source license on javadesktop.org Let's welcome Sun to the world of XUL. Full story @ http://www.javadesktop.org/articles/JDNC - Gerald PS: (*) Sorry, if anyone feels offended. I'm just playing with Sun's latest marketing push using blond bombshells. Check out the Christina Aguilera promo @ http://java.com/en/explore/mobile/christina.jsp ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
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