Show and Edit Stylized Text
Looks like I need to roll my own stylized-text display field, eh? Or is there an easier way?
I just want to allow the user to bold, underline, italicize, strikethrough, etc. text documents. I've searched everywhere for info on using Rebol to do this, but have come up with zilch. Nada. Zip.
posted by: c.k.lester 18-Aug-2015/16:29:49-7:00
Rebol's cross-platform GUI strategy thus far has hinged on the "get a big bitmap buffer and do all the work inside the window you get back". That means no native controls, and all the controls that have been implemented are going to have quirks. Red plans to use native controls on whatever platform it's on--but as that is a new trick for a VID-like dialect, it remains to be seen how well it works. And they are *very* early in the process.
Rebol2 has a stable GUI dialect that is a known-quantity, but those close to the issue who would know best have told me it does not hold up beyond simple desires.
Atronix's Rebol/View works for them. And I'm sure Shixin would answer questions if asked on StackOverflow if they were specifically narrow and answerable. Yet they maintain it for themselves and do not have time for extensive support of it; so no new features "just because a guy on the Internet asked". It is open source, but not trivial to get up to speed in extending.
To answer your other question... if you are in a hurry, then using Rebol for GUI right now would be too frustrating to do. An absolute prerequisite would be patience for a Rebol-based solution--a patience stemming from desire for to use something integrated with Rebol (because that is what you want to use for other reasons, in areas where it is closer-to-finished.)
As a data point: I use Rebol for many things--even some where I *know* doing so doesn't make my life easier (makes it actively harder, even)--because I want to push its boundaries and improve the language. Yet I have never been compelled by the GUI to use that. This might tell you something.
I'll point out that a similar but more thorough and vetted approach can be found in the "Tk toolkit" of Tcl. While Tcl is not as "interesting or modern" as Rebol in a language sense (IMO), it is stable and cross-platform, and Tk has been around for a very long time. It has a Tk Text widget:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7357
If you're not looking for something in the same vein but are willing to go with something else, there are many obvious choices. As there has in the past been some crossover between Rebol and Delphi userbase, I'll note that Delphi is actually having some sort of rebirth these days, even on OS/X:
http://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/mac-osx-development
...which is interesting to see.
posted by: Fork 19-Aug-2015/4:53:45-7:00
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