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proposals for meta-applications, frameworks, windows...(long message)

    Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1992 19:24+0200
    From: Scott McKay <SWM@stony-brook.scrc.symbolics.com>

    [...]

    Global variables are simply a special case of an agreed upon "database".
    There are more flexible ways to do this, but global variables are not
    inherently bad for this purpose.

Suppose I have 2 app-frames displaying the state of a network.  The data
about the network is to be shared between the two, but the "current view
style" is app-specific.

Therefore, i would use state variables for the "current view style".
But what do I use for the state of the network?  If I use global
variables, they are accessible to all applications...  Of course I could
use packages, but it's a "side solution", not a "hierarchical one".
There should be state variables for a type of application (what I called
a meta-app) that are shared by all app-instances of the type.

    I believe that a normal CLIM application frame can serve exactly the
    function of what you call a "meta-application".

Can I use child/parent applications?  How does that fit in the clim
theory?

    A window in CLIM is the same as a window in X or MCL or whatever.  A
    pane is a window whose parent is an application frame.  An application
    frame is an object that groups together some state variables,
    (optionally) a process, a command loop, and zero or more panes.

Can you open/close panes independently and have them "float around"
independently also?  What about the active one and the input "focus"?

    I certainly don't think that CLIM 2.0 should be breaking ground in the
    area of "virtual distributed desktops".  Maybe later...

Is it really breaking ground?  Isn't that trying to clarify concepts
we're using and placing them in a general context?

vk
===============================================================
Keunen Vincent                  Network Research Belgium
R&D, Software Engineer          Parc Industriel des Hauts-Sarts
keunen@nrb.be                   2e Avenue, 65
tel: +32 41 407282              B-4040 Herstal
fax: +32 41 481170              BELGIUM
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