[Mono-dev] visual webgui for mono?

[Michael Schurter]

Robert Jordan wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> Jesse Guardiani wrote:
>> I just ran across this today while search compulsively for things like "AJAX WebOS",
>> "AJAX Internet Operating System", and "AJAX Web Desktop":
>>    http://www.visualwebgui.com
>>
>> Looks really slick. I think the concept is that you code using the normal
>> WinForms API, but the code generates HTML and javascript that runs in a
>> thin AJAX client on the browser side.
>>
>> The problem I see is that it doesn't work in firefox, only IE.
>>
>> I've been thinking about AJAX a lot lately and I'm starting to think that
>> an AJAX Desktop might be the development platform of the near future.
>>
>> It looks like the Visual WebGUI folks agree, but I think the goal might be
>> better achieved by an open source group. (supporting a broad range of
>> browsers rather than just IE.)
>>
>> Sounds like a massive amount of work. And I'm not sure if it would be better
>> to recode an existing API or create a new, simpler API. But the obvious advantage
>> to using WinForms, assuming a group of programmers could pull it off, would be
>> that it is already a widespread and widely used API in the industry.
>>
>> I'm probably smoking something.
> 
> Would you mind to share some of this great weed? :-)

Puff puff pass

> Visual WebGUI seems to be very similar to Google's approach:
> 
> 	http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

Before anyone gets too excited it should be noted Google's webtoolkit is 
for Java.  :)

> Since Mono/.NET has at least the same reflection power,
> it should be easy to build a similar framework.
> 
> About WinForms as a "generic" API: it's far from being
> the best API on this planet. It might be widespread, but
> it also has a lot of design flaws. Its layout capabilities
> (important for web browser output) are mediocre, etc.

I shudder to think what web applications written in WinForms would look 
like.  A new generic GUI API, similar to wxWidgets but for web 
applications as well, seems ideal.

-- 
Michael Schurter
Synthesys Computer Solutions
http://www.synthesyssolutions.com/