Perspectives 2010 is done and now I can turn my attentions to some serious development work for Manage 2000 7.4. My first major task is to build a foundation for web update functions that will be as nice for the keyboard oriented users as PWS functions and that will be as quick to build for the developer.
There have been 4 or 5 update web functions in Manage 2000 since release 7.1 and the BTO framework has always supported update business object processes. But is is not an easy task to build an update web function and the user experience falters particularly for keyboard oriented folks in scrolled set scenarios.
It is remarkable how effective one level of de-normalization in the user interface can be. When you look around at the thousands of Manage 2000 PWS functions almost all of the screens are a collection of single valued prompts with a few scrolled sets. The application developer can express the modeling of complex business processes quite efficiently with this one level de-normalization, taking the user through multiple screens/pages traversing deeper business processing levels. And I wonder if this does not reflect a characteristic of human perception to be interested in a set of data and its immediate context, but no further.
Using grids to implement scrolled sets is like converting an all-terrain vehicle into a riding lawn mower; sure it can be done, but is it the most practical approach? The programming model is too complex and the performance too poor. A much leaner model that only does what is required for scrolled set entry and does not try to be a generalized do everything-2-dimensional container is needed.
So here I am re-casting the SCROLL.MAINT logic Doug wrote 20 years ago into an HTML/JavaScript mold. Am I going backwards, or am I bringing those things that worked and added value into the Dot World?
