Using jsLinb and the Sigma Visual Builder with Rebol (web, mobile, and Desktop UIs)
I'm in the process of writing a much more succinct tutorial, but in the meantime, I made a long winded video which shows my favorite way of building front end UIs for Rebol apps which can run on any platform:
https://youtu.be/6yrDNluQSwo
Here's the video description, to give an idea of what it's about:
This is a general introduction to the Linb Javascript library and the Sigma Visual Builder, which is a Javascript IDE that runs entirely in your web browser. The system creates beautiful user interfaces (GUIs) which run exactly the same in absolutely every web browser (from IE6(!)and even Firefox 1.5, to every single modern mobile and desktop platform). It can be used very easily to connect and move data between any back end server, written in any language.
This video demonstrates a few examples of sending and receiving data to/from Rebol CGI scripts. The entire process, from downloading jsLinb and the Sigma Visual builder (6Mb), downloading the Uniform Server WAMP package (6Mb) and running in MS Windows, is covered. The exact same process can be used on any platform, desktop or mobile, using any Apache web server stack with which you're familiar.
The jsLinb library and Sigma builder IDE are free to use for commercial projects (LGPL). They're extremely simple to use, but very powerful. The downloads are tiny, the Visual IDE runs on any typical Apache setup, on ANY OS which has a Javascript enabled browser. Not only are the created apps more portable than can be imagined, but the entire development environment and deployment tools are usable on any platform - so you can build complex, useful and fully functioning user interfaces on your desktop, mobile, or web platform, and connect them quickly and easily to any server back end script.
The whole package is a beautifully designed, practical, simple, exhaustively documented, and productive solution for creating multi-platform apps which use Rebol (or any other language/tool set) on the server. It's a perfect way to manage data using Rebol server apps, with front ends on the web, mobile devices, and desktop. Do your dirty data processing work in a Rebol server app, but use the pretty jsLinb front end on an iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, on the newest desktop version of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or even in IE6, without changing a single line of code. The process is incredibly fast and productive, and ridiculously easy to learn. The GUIs are beautiful, lightweight, and responsive.
posted by: Nick 26-Aug-2015/23:51:09-7:00
ALL the files used in the video are here:
http://re-bol.com/jsLinb-sigma-tutorial.zip
(Front end JS and Rebol CGI scripts, Rebol interpreter, jsLinb/Sigma builder distribution, Windows Uniserver distribution, etc., ~12Mb)
posted by: Nick 27-Aug-2015/0:05:37-7:00
I can't wait to check this out. Love the concept.
posted by: Edoc 27-Aug-2015/11:24:45-7:00
The little builder is so freaking productive.
posted by: Nick 27-Aug-2015/16:35:23-7:00
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