invitation to new discussion of java GUI's

[Chip Watson <Chip.Watson@jlab.org>]

I would like to start an open discussion of java based operator interfaces.
This discussion will use a new email list maintained and archived at Jlab,
called java-discuss@jlab.org. To join this group, send the message
    subscribe java-discuss
to the address mailserv@jlab.org.  To leave, send "unsubscribe java-discuss".
At a later point, a web will be set up with links to the email archive and a
summary of the discussion.

Periodically, progress reports will be posted to tech-talk and soft-share,
so if you don't want the details, you can just wait for the summaries.

Goals of the discussion:

    1) shared java software
    2) shared vocabulary to describe access to data, especially
        control system data for an experiment or accelerator or
        any other distributed system
    3) shared experiences with commercial software, including
        both GUI and other components, as well as development
        environments
    4) avoiding the creation of multiple, nearly identical, operator
        interface tools with large investments in each

Java, as we all recognize, is uniquely able to provide a platform for
achieving these goals.

I would like to have a "virtual asynchronous meeting", where we tackle
a set of topics, one at a time.  I would propose the following "agenda":

    1) rough ideas of a software architecture (java beans based, almost
        certainly), integration w/ commercial IDE's, etc.

    2) awt (and hence applets) vs swing based components

    3) standard behaviors for GUI components
        -- layout
        -- support for mouse listeners (MB2, ...)
        -- drag&drop

    4) data and meta-data access, including naming the necessary
        meta-data (like units, limits, etc., like the SOSH conventions if
        you are aware of these); separate beans or integrated beans?

    5) persistent storage of "screen definitions"
        -- DM / MEDM compatibility for EPICS users (adl files)
        -- XML as a more industry standard ASCII representation ?
        -- serialized beans (binary representation) ?

    6) color schemes (at least, meta-color)
        -- indicating no data, communication error, etc.
        -- indicating no write access
        -- error states

    7) organizing ourselves to produce shareable beans
        -- detailed design (next item)
        -- making shared software easily accessible to each other
        -- allowing for distributed development, bug-fixes, etc.

    8) detailed design discussions
        -- inheritance model, interfaces and abstract classes, factories
        -- helper classes
        -- integrating commercial GUI components

You are welcome to listen in, contribute to the discussion, and
volunteer to produce components.  Everyone contributing code will be
considered as part of a "collaboration", and we'll figure out how to
share credit, conference talks, etc. later.

Very soon to follow on the new list (tomorrow): my first thoughts on item (1).

Chip