A tiny DSL to build Windows::Forms menus from IronRuby - review wanted

Ruby IronRuby
1

Hi,
I started working on UI bits, both for Ivan book and because my
customers
are interested (and well - because it’s fun, too!). First topic is how
to
build menus more easily (next one will be long running operations and
how to
sugar them).

I’d be interested to get your opinion on both the DSL syntax (below for
quick read or
herehttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/003_dsl_menu.rb
on
github) and the
implementationhttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/menu_builder.rb
.

form.menu = MainMenu.build do
item(“&File”) {
item(“&New”) {
item(“Spreadsheet”)
item(“Document”)
}
item “&Quit”, lambda { Application.Exit }
}
item(“&Tools”) {

item “&PowerBlade”, lambda { MessageBox.Show(“Powerblades are
amazing…”) }
item “&Scissors”
}
end

what do you think ?

cheers,

Thibaut Barrère

2

I think it looks very nice. It’s a shame that you have to resort to
direct lambda’s since you can’t pass two lambda’s in, but otherwise it’s
a nice visual representation of the menu, in code.

JD

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thibaut
Barrère
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:26 PM
To: ironruby-core
Subject: [Ironruby-core] A tiny DSL to build Windows::Forms menus from
IronRuby - review wanted

Hi,

I started working on UI bits, both for Ivan book and because my
customers are interested (and well - because it’s fun, too!). First
topic is how to build menus more easily (next one will be long running
operations and how to sugar them).

I’d be interested to get your opinion on both the DSL syntax (below for
quick read or
herehttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/003_dsl_menu.rb
on github) and the
implementationhttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/menu_builder.rb.

form.menu = MainMenu.build do
item(“&File”) {
item(“&New”) {
item(“Spreadsheet”)
item(“Document”)
}
item “&Quit”, lambda { Application.Exit }
}
item(“&Tools”) {
item “&PowerBlade”, lambda { MessageBox.Show(“Powerblades are
amazing…”) }
item “&Scissors”
}
end

what do you think ?

cheers,

Thibaut Barrère

3

Hi,

I think it looks very nice. It’s a shame that you have to resort to direct
lambda’s since you can’t pass two lambda’s in, but otherwise it’s a nice
visual representation of the menu, in code.

thanks for the feedback, appreciated!

I just realised that I can also use this (without modifying the
implementation):

item("&PowerBlade").click { MessageBox.Show("Powerblades are

amazing…") }

instead of

item("&PowerBlade", lambda { MessageBox.Show("Powerblades are

amazing…") }

same effect, slightly more readable though.

cheers, and I shall move on to long running operations.

– Thibaut

4

After chatting with Ivan, I created some code to build Forms too:

form = Magic.build do
form(:text => “Hello”) do
flow_layout_panel(:dock => DockStyle.fill) do
button(:text => “Click me!”, :click => lambda {
MessageBox.Show(“Hello”) })
button(:text => “Quit”, :click => lambda { Application.Exit })
end
end
end
*
*

I use method_missing and transform the method name from
flow_layout_panel to
FlowLayoutPanel class etc.

After using these a bit, I’m pretty sure we’ll end up with some
community
project sharing that kind of stuff, at some point.

Nb: I hope it’s not OT for the core list - or is it time to create a
user
group ?

cheers,

– Thibaut

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Thibaut Barrère

5

Awesome stuff! If you make this into its own github project, I can add
it to http://github.com/ironruby/ironruby-contrib as a submodule.
That’ll force me to keep it updated =)

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thibaut
Barrère
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 2:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Ironruby-core] A tiny DSL to build Windows::Forms menus
from IronRuby - review wanted

After chatting with Ivan, I created some code to build Forms too:

form = Magic.build do

form(:text => “Hello”) do

flow_layout_panel(:dock => DockStyle.fill) do



  button(:text => "Click me!", :click => lambda {

MessageBox.Show(“Hello”) })

  button(:text => "Quit", :click => lambda { Application.Exit })



end

end

end

I use method_missing and transform the method name from
flow_layout_panel to FlowLayoutPanel class etc.

After using these a bit, I’m pretty sure we’ll end up with some
community project sharing that kind of stuff, at some point.

Nb: I hope it’s not OT for the core list - or is it time to create a
user group ?

cheers,

– Thibaut

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Thibaut Barrère
<[email protected]mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,

I think it looks very nice. It’s a shame that you have to resort to
direct lambda’s since you can’t pass two lambda’s in, but otherwise it’s
a nice visual representation of the menu, in code.
thanks for the feedback, appreciated!

I just realised that I can also use this (without modifying the
implementation):

item("&PowerBlade").click { MessageBox.Show("Powerblades are

amazing…") }

instead of

item("&PowerBlade", lambda { MessageBox.Show("Powerblades are

amazing…") }

same effect, slightly more readable though.

cheers, and I shall move on to long running operations.

– Thibaut

JD

From:
[email protected]mailto:[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Thibaut Barrère
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:26 PM
To: ironruby-core
Subject: [Ironruby-core] A tiny DSL to build Windows::Forms menus from
IronRuby - review wanted

Hi,

I started working on UI bits, both for Ivan book and because my
customers are interested (and well - because it’s fun, too!). First
topic is how to build menus more easily (next one will be long running
operations and how to sugar them).

I’d be interested to get your opinion on both the DSL syntax (below for
quick read or
herehttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/003_dsl_menu.rb
on github) and the
implementationhttp://github.com/thbar/ironruby-labs/blob/66b45fd6f13d2b3c8aa8021ee3f58303a9bb7eae/ui/menu_builder.rb.

form.menu = MainMenu.build do
item(“&File”) {
item(“&New”) {
item(“Spreadsheet”)
item(“Document”)
}
item “&Quit”, lambda { Application.Exit }
}
item(“&Tools”) {
item “&PowerBlade”, lambda { MessageBox.Show(“Powerblades are
amazing…”) }
item “&Scissors”
}
end

what do you think ?

cheers,

Thibaut Barrère

–
LoGeek
[blog] http://evolvingworker.com - tools for a better day
[blog] http://blog.logeek.fr - about writing software

6

Hi Jimmy,

Awesome stuff! If you make this into its own github project, I can add it
to http://github.com/ironruby/ironruby-contrib as a submodule. That’ll
force me to keep it updated =)

glad you like it! I’ll definitely extract it to a separate github
project
later on - I’ll ping you when I do so.

– Thibaut

7

Hi Jimmy et al,

Awesome stuff! If you make this into its own github project, I can add it to
http://github.com/ironruby/ironruby-contrib as a submodule. That’ll force me
to keep it updated =)

glad you like it! I’ll definitely extract it to a separate github project later on - I’ll ping you when I do so.

not sure if my annoucement was clear - the separate project is now
available. It’s called Magic:

At the end I realize the syntax is totally shooesesque
(http://shoooes.net/).

I’m in the process of evolving it so that it works well with WPF and
Silverlight (and QuickGraph, too).

cheers,

– Thibaut