Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!rminnich
From: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Button Boxes via ReXX
Message-ID: <2537@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 13 May 88 19:11:11 GMT
Reply-To: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 26

I had a thought (first one of the year?) last night after looking
at Tom Rokicki's AReXX version of Emacs. The idea is that with
AReXX and things that support Arexx you can build button boxes.
A button box is a box with labelled buttons. People build them
in labs for experiments. Sometimes they have sliders and pots too.
So you could have, e.g, a button box come up for font selection.
When you hit a button (gadget) it would send the a user-defined
command out the rexx port to the destination programs
Unlike menus the button box just sits where you put it and you
hit the buttons at will- sort of like the calculator. 
   For example, hitting 'it' button would send an Italic command
out the rexx port. In emacs this might translate to {\it } if you
are in TeX mode, or in the notepad it might turn into the menu
selection for italics, and so on. The point is that the amiga
environment + arexx makes it possible to build all sorts of
button boxes. In addition this moves us to a more object-oriented
domain where messages are sent to things and the things either
take action or say 'i don't get it'. 
   Button boxes make extensibility easier. All we need is a simple
button box language- which should have maybe 3 keywords. The translator
would read the buttons in and build a 'box', i.e. a window full 
of little button gadgets. 
   Finally, what is a button box like? Like a part of hypercard, maybe?
I don't know ... don't wanna get sued.
-- 
ron (rminnich@udel.edu)