On 2/26/06, Howard Lewis Ship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
> My idea so far has been that we map directly from the path to a page name.
</snip>

One big problem with Spindle + T4 is that the page name has this
special status as the focal point.

Before T4 the spec object was the focal point. This was great as the
was usually built from a xml file which is a static entity and static
entities are what tools have to work with. And files are the easiest
thing of all to "find". Allowing for some exceptions
(<page>/<component-type> tags) it was a reasonable to infer the name
of the page/component from the name of the spec file. Again with some
exceptions the class and template "finding" was unabiguous - a spec
had one class and one template.

In T4 the focus moves to the name a developer uses to reference the
page/component. And that focus is completely ambiguous as to what
class/template applies. It depends on the context in which the
developer uses the name. Tools either have to build a massive map of
all possible combinations of name/class/xml/template (most of which
are never going to be used)  or impose artificial rules to make the
task manageable.

I found out quickly that IDE users are not interested in more "rules"
on the use of the tool.

Simply pasting even more rules on top of this inside Tapestry does not
go to the root of the problem and only has a minor benefit in tools
w/respect to reduced complexity.

Turn the focus away from the spec object to another static entity.
We've already left xml behind as a possible focus so that leaves only
the template and the class. I think everyone would agree that the
template is not the right choice which leaves the class. If the class
is the 'king' then the spec object becomes a subordinate player as it
should be.

The fqn of the class becomes the name of the page/component and it
just becomes an excercise in allowing developers to use 'simpler
names'  that map to the fqn. All the pieces are there now to do this.

I fail to see why "the class is the page/component" (a poor statement
of this concept of focus) is unreasonable.

Geoff

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