Hi, The talk about document oriented environment reminded me something ... what we are missing is cooperation between tools and applications. They simply can not talk to each other! Why? Because developers are selfish and are not creating any interfaces to their codes. Ok, except library developers.
How it should be? Instead of creating an application, create a framework. Self-sufficient application should be considered a prototype and proof of concept for given functionality. Application should be only an user interface for a framework. The application should be as thin as possible. With this attitude, the developer creates a framework - perhaps a derivate of the prototype application. On top on this framework other developers can build: - an application - interaction between user and the framework through UI - command-line tool - interaction between user and the framework through terminal; scriptability of the framework (and therefore of the application) - scripting environment - glue functionality of the framework with others Moreover, the framework should be split into two: UI and non-UI part. With this approach, which is nothing more than reversed point of view on certain elements in a system, a document focused environment can be created more easily. Why? Because everything in the system is able to cooperate - frameworks have interfaces for the outside world. Thoughts? Stefan Urbanek -- http://stefan.agentfarms.net First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi
