posted January 07, 2007 08:01 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paul Franks:
Another option build one of the basic web servers on the forums into your
app, point the submit button to "localhost" on an unused port like 8080,
and use CGI techniques to get the form data.

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That assumes you are publishing the pages.

posted January 07, 2007 11:59 PM            

quote:

---

No need, Jose Roca did it for you a while ago, brilliantly: http://www.powerbasic.com/support/forums/Forum7/HTML/002621.html

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Thanks Paul. Phew! ( saved from a long journey into the underworld )

That looks comprehensive enough and provides more flexibiility
than the localhost solution.

Chris,
the hypothesis is: delegating a program's GUI to the browser,
is a universal solution that avoids platform specifics. Whether
your application is web-based or confined to the desktop.

posted January 08, 2007 10:53 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Joe Byrne:

I only used Quickbooks as an example, but as an example, it holds up very well to make my point about cross platform compilers.

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Perhaps the best example of a cross-platform app that runs nicely
on several OS' is the IDE used by the majority of enterprise
Java developers: http://www.eclipse.org/ Have a look at the
screenshots. Thanks to IBM's contribution, it uses native GUI
widgets on each platform.

posted January 08, 2007 12:14 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Charles Pegge:
delegating a program's GUI to the browser,
is a universal solution that avoids platform specifics. Whether
your application is web-based or confined to the desktop.

---

Why not just write a CGI program instead of a wrapper for a browser?

posted January 08, 2007 12:56 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Charles Pegge:
Chris,
the hypothesis is: delegating a program's GUI to the browser, is a universal solution that avoids platform specifics. Whether your application is web-based or confined to the desktop.

---

Interestingly enough, that same philosophy puts the entire UI experience under the control of a relatively small number of people (those who develop the browsers, be they commercial or free). I guess whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on one's personal perspective and development goals.

posted January 08, 2007 01:21 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paul Franks:
http://www.eclipse.org/

---

And guess what, it supports C and COBOL. A proper job.
Runs on Windows & various ~ixen.

posted January 08, 2007 01:41 PM            

Bye!

posted January 08, 2007 02:15 PM            

quote:

---

Why not just write a CGI program instead of a wrapper for a browser?

---

Yes, this would definitely be simpler to do. I am a complete
novice in this area so I am deconstructing one of the HTTP
server samples in the pbwin/internet section, to see what is
involved.

But it may be better to avoid the cgi stage, by binding the
http server directly into the application (or as a DLL) to
provide tighter integration and easier continuity of
processing. ie:- process the posted strings directly and
spit web pages on the fly.

posted January 08, 2007 03:24 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Charles Pegge:

But it may be better to avoid the cgi stage, by binding the
http server directly into the application (or as a DLL) to
provide tighter integration and easier continuity of
processing. ie:- process the posted strings directly and
spit web pages on the fly.

---

In my brief experience, it is childs play to capture the POSTed
HTML form data using a cgi executable and output web pages,
just a matter of reading STDIN and writing STDOUT.

I thought that maybe you were aiming to wrap a browser so as to capture
input into a 3rd party web page.

posted January 08, 2007 04:13 PM            

The main intention is to make GUI design as quick and generic as
possible.

Sticking a server onto an application may be better than cgi
when the application has to run continuously - and performance
considerations come into play.

Embedding the browser itself, begins to look unnecessary, unless,
you want to intercept 3rd party web pages, as you say.

As for Eclipse, are we about to end up in the bowels of another monster?

posted January 09, 2007 08:58 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Charles Pegge:

The main intention is to make GUI design as quick and generic as
possible.

---

In addition to which a big attraction of the browser-based approach
would be that you don't have to distribute, maintain and support any client code.
The more I think about it the more I like it, at least conceptually. The test
will be in making good ergonomics.

posted January 09, 2007 10:33 AM            

Of course good design ergonomics comes into play here. The less fiddly
bits the better. Though ergonomics will not always equate with beauty.