[Bese-devel] ucw status

[Marco Baringer]

it's been mighty quiet hasn't it?

here's a brief summary down of what's happened lately (since 0.2.3):
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- select/option tags now work on with lisp values, not strings. if
  you want the "standard" html behaziour use <:select and <:option,
  otherwise use <ucw:select and <ucw:option.

- added :on-change, :on-focus and :on-select attributes. these are
  actions which get called when the similarly named javascript event
  occurs.

- the action error handler now calls swank:swank-debugger-hook if
  *debug-on-error* is t (and we're connected to an emacs)

- the current-component slot has been renamed to the more apt
  root-component

- transaction examples works once again.

- components can now specify that one of their slots should be their
  place via the :place-slot defcomponent option.

As far as the various lisp implementations go:
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1) the portableaserve has bit rotten a bit (not much, but i think it
   only works on openmcl in its current state).

2) sbcl 0.8.12 contains a mop bug which ucw triggers, use cvs sbcl,
   wait until sbcl 0.8.13 or get me to write o work around patch.

3) the cmucl backend works (under mod_lisp for sure, portableaserve
   untested) except you need to use :spawn as the
   *communication-style* for slime (as apposed to the default :sigio)
   or wait until that gets fixed in slime.

What's next?
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the only thing stopping 0.3.0 is documentation. i'm currently working
(slowly) on an app which will server as manual/api ref and as a "real
world" ucw example.

Um, dude, what about all the cool stuff in that old TODO list?
--------------------------------------------------------------

as cool as most of it seemed, none of it (except the tree-view
component) has ever actually been needed so far:

flash components - too much work, too little gain.

form validation - i have gotten really, realy far just building forms
in little pieces out of component and then combining components. while
this may not be as "enterprise ready" as xforms or some of the other
stuff floating around it's the right balance between structure and
maleability for me. however, if anyone has any cool ideas i'm all
ears.

CLIM like macros for constructing components - the :place-slot
defcomponent option and the :component slot argument accomplish this
but use a more defclass like syntax.

session serialization - if you want sessions to be mobile then you're
looking at more overhead than i'm willing to deal with, if you just
want a ucw farm then an apache module would be the best thing. either
way i don't expect to ever run into an app that can't be satisifed
with a single machine (i don't plan on competing with slashdot any
time soon).

-- 
-Marco
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
     -Leonard Cohen