Guys, would be this an interesting project to advance Smalltalk UI more toward bleeding edge again, after 30 years, when we were there already with MVC based GUI? Spec project have a potential here and Spec over web frameworks to build fully desktop-capable web apps seems to be achievable. Spec over Amber (who will propose that?), Spec over Aida, Spec over Seaside? Benjamin, would you be a co-mentor of that project?
Title: Spec over Aida for desktop-capable Web Apps Level: advanced Possible mentor: Janko Mivšek Possible second mentor: Benjamin? Description Spec as a means to describe and generate GUI has a potential to help building web applications as well. And because one of Spec goals is to become a platform/framework independent, this project has a goal to extend Aida component model for building Single Page web apps to become Spec-aware Technical Details Aida has a component model for building so called Single Page web UIs, capable of composing a hierarchy of so called web widgets, which are standalone reusable components, together with hierarchical web form support. Spec as descriptor and generator of UI is therefore a natural extension of Aida component model. When a HTML5 Web Components standard will be ready, Aida component model can be easily extended to support that standard as well, together with Spec (and maybe UIBuilder too?). Benefits to the Student Student will acquire the knowledge and experience of building desktop-capable UIs on the web using HTML5 approach. Benefits to the Community Spec has a potential to become a de-facto standard way of describing User Interfaces for Smalltalk projects from desktop to web and mobile, on a dialect and web framework neutral way. This project can contribute a piece toward that goal. Best regards Janko -- Janko Mivšek Aida/Web Smalltalk Web Application Server http://www.aidaweb.si