by Grant Skinner

GLIC status

Quick status update on the gskinner.com lightweight interface components. Technically, the components are done, and have been run through a battery of test suites. In fact, we have significantly expanded the number of components we anticipate releasing. From the 11 we originally planned, we are now up to 18:


  • Accordion

  • Button

  • CheckBox

  • ColorPicker

  • ColorPickerRGB*

  • ComboBox

  • DataGrid**

  • FieldSet*

  • List

  • NumericStepper

  • RadioButton

  • SmartClipList*

  • ScrollBar

  • ScrollPane

  • Slider

  • TabBox*

  • TextArea

  • TextInput

* No comparable component in MM v2

** May not initially implement entire MM v2 API

All of these components (except those marked) are polymorphic with MM’s components, so you don’t have to relearn the API or even modify existing applications significantly to upgrade them with GLIC. We’ve even extended the API in many cases – how often have you wished that List and DataGrid had a “scrollToSelected” method? GLIC has one, and that’s just a small example of our new functionality.

We also have fully implemented our advanced FocusManager, that works with ALL of our components seamlessly, and allows for easy the creation of tab groups, and advanced features such as having one tab group continue automatically into another tab group. The coolest thing is that you don’t have to use (or even understand) the advanced features if you don’t need them. You can just stick with tabIndex.

// add myComponent to a tabGroup

myComponent.tabIndex = 3;

myComponent.tabGroup = “myGroup”; // named tab group

// alternately:

myComponent.tabGroup = this._parent; // scope-based tab group

// set up myGroup to tab into mySecondGroup when it reaches it’s end:

FocusManager.getTabGroup(“myGroup”).nextGroup = “mySecondGroup”;

All of our controls are completely accessible via the keyboard, and in the future we will be working to implement full standards-compliant accessibility.

IMHO, another super cool feature with GLIC is that our components are non-invasive. They do not rely on scads of mix-ins, they do not plug new functionality into built-in objects. For example, instead of turning every single Array in your application into a data provider, we utilize a RecordSet class that wraps an array – we leave poor Array alone. We even silently manage the process for you in our List based components, so you don’t have to know about it if you don’t want to.

I’m working on the business details, and should have news on the expected availability date and licensing details late next week, at which point we will set up a GLIC mailing list to keep everyone interested fed with info.

PS. we’re still about 65-75% smaller than MM’s components, and use massively less CPU power.

Related links:

Announcement: Gskinner Lightweight Interface Components

Update on GLIC

Max introNetwork: GLIC in action.

Importance of Test Suites (+glic)

Grant Skinner

The "g" in gskinner. Also the "skinner".

@gskinner

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Update on GLIC, mCOM / GLIC components released, GLIC: WTF?, Announcement: Gskinner Lightweight Interface Components

18 Comments

  1. 1stPixel November 10, 2004 at 1:18pm

    The only question is: WHEN THE HELL ?

  2. TWEEN PIX November 10, 2004 at 1:38pm

    des nouvelles de GLIC

    Grant Skinner daigne enfin donner des nouvelles de GLIC. Le nombre de composants proposés dans ce framework est passé de 11 à 17. Seront proposés : Accordion, Button, CheckBox, ColorPicker, ColorPickerRGB, ComboBox, DataGrid, List, NumericStepper, Radi…

  3. Lanny McNie November 10, 2004 at 1:55pm

    – above:

    “…should have news on the expected availability date and licensing details late next week”

  4. Bernd November 11, 2004 at 7:14am

    Do the components support XML data binding ?

    Bernd

  5. Jed Wood November 18, 2004 at 9:18am

    Can you say anything more about the “TabBox” component? Is it visual-tabs interface? Or does it deal with your tabGroup stuff?

  6. Grant Skinner November 18, 2004 at 12:29pm

    The TabBox component is a visual tab interface, including support for tab run-over (ie. too many tabs to display) and full keyboard control.

  7. Jed Wood November 19, 2004 at 8:24am

    perfect- just what I was hoping for.

    Back to anxiously waiting…

  8. Chris Allen November 22, 2004 at 11:10am

    Hi Grant,

    Any idea on the estimated price of all the components? I assume you are very close to actually releaseing them, so just wondering if you can give out this info now.

    Thanks,

    Chris

  9. jmy November 23, 2004 at 12:56am

    *THUD*

    Crap.

    I just died of anticipation.

  10. Jim Fee January 26, 2005 at 7:44am

    any updates on this? After all, if one reads this closely, one would think that you had the details the week of 11/19/2004. I understand that you went through a wholesale change for your site, but some of us are very interested in replacements of certain MM V2 components (specifically the data grid).

  11. Kai Langenbach February 5, 2005 at 2:04am

    I agree to the posting of jim. PLEASE GRANT, GIVE US AN UPDATE ! The world is waiting for GLIC !!!

    Kai

  12. Andy Lount February 7, 2005 at 4:52am

    Are we nearly there yet?

    Are we nearly there yet?

    Are we…

    hehe 🙂

  13. Mr. Junk February 17, 2005 at 3:39am

    Is this going to come out before 8ball?

  15. Mr. Spam March 11, 2005 at 12:42pm

    Is it true, that they will never be released?

  16. Scott March 29, 2005 at 5:58pm

    No news?

    Guess I’ll have to write my own then…

  17. iongion March 30, 2005 at 10:21pm

    Did you droped this project with no furhter notice ?

  18. Robert December 23, 2006 at 4:32am

    No, me don’t like

Comments are closed.