Topic awaiting preservation: Comments on XML-browser? (Page 1 of 1)

Hi, I'd like some comments for a (kinda) webrowser, browsing XML-pages using the Liquid markup language.
I'm sorry, but it will require a once download plugin AND it also requires (any) Windows.

Both are installed simultaniously if you open the webrowser from the homepage, http://www.naltabyte.se/liquid

Comments are very much welcome, if anyone is up to testing it despite the plugins and stuff. :-)

(^-^)b

Ouch! I'm sorry to say that but your page is a NO-NO It's ~400Kb. There's 151 pictures. Many of them are resized and look crappier than they actually are.

Liquid may be a good thing, but that page doesn't make it honour. Indeed it doesn't make me feel like trying Liquid.

Nonetheless I had already installed the MioEngine and viewed some of your work in the past. So I clicked to see the examples. All of them opened an alert ( almost as annoying as a pop-up ) and they all crashed and opened an alert saying "Error in Even.load .... Code line : mouse.rightclickmode(2) ...". The warning mentionning that the MioReader is required doesn't state which version you use and apparently there's no backward compatibility. I'm terribly sorry but all these deceptions made me eagger to close the window instead of downloading a newer version of the MioEngine to see what Liquid really have in the guts.

I'm aware that I may sound again like the french-arrogant ( some may think that's a synonym ) mate but please stick to the KISS ( Keep It Simpe Stupid ) rules to design your pages and try to make them user friendly.

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

[This message has been edited by poi (edited 09-29-2003).]

Ok, the site is due for an overhaul anyway, and I'm going at it tonight already.
But POI, what do you think of the editor?
- Does that work?
- Bugs?
- Things that can be fixed?

All opinions are extremly welcome.

(^-^)b

Honestly the site didn't encouraged me to run the editor so far. I just did and Norton Antivirus warned me that a 'malicious script' was trying to access local files and get folders. I let it go though I hate that.

Then I downloaded the Liquid SDK ( including 2 .bak and WS_FTP.LOG ) and launched it. At this very moment Norton Antivirus became crazy. Liquid's SDK window and Norton's one where fighting each other constantly All I could do is shut down the MSHTA application. It made me wonder why you didn't made your SDK available online or in PDF, CHM like everybody. I've disabled Norton Auto-Protect and launched the Liquid's SDK again but it behaved exactly the same.

Regarding the editor, since I can't learn how to use 30-40 tags in few minutes it's really nice to have a documention with some samples in the right panel. So I've tested some of the samples and tweaked few parameters. The editor itself is a slow. Roll over the buttons, make a selection with the mouse or simply type some code and you'll see the changes several milliseconds later. The lag is quite noticable when you type some code. I almost felt like on my good old Amstrad though I've got an XP1800+ with 512mb running W2K. The CPU time usage when typing this post oscillates between 0 and 5%. When I move my mouse across the icons of the Liquid's editor, the CPU time usage blows the 100%.

I've added a 3D shape, because that's what I'm mainly interested in with Liquid, and when I clicked on the LIVE button the editor took its to time to display a 3D shape with 19 edges but it was almost stucked when I clicked back on the CODE button. Regarding 3D thingy, I wonder why you set the camera in every <drawspace /> tag while you could have a kind of <camera /> tag to set and control it once for all.
The <preload /> tag and sprite attributes are quite nice.

Well, in fact I'm so used to the way I code that I would prefer to have a wordlist for UltraEdit and a documention in PDF or CHM. If you absolutely want to make an editor, I think you should focus your efforts in making a wysiwyg one ala DreamWeaver or Director.
Finally, I'm not sure I'm a part of your target audience so my opinion may not be of highest importance.

Anyway hope that helps.




Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

Thanks for your insightful comments.
The editor is done entirely using dhtml, and launched as a mio-app, so I guess it's slow partly because of that.

I'm looking for somebody who'd be interested in partnering with me in optimizing both the Liquid-engine and the editor, and I am making it public right here and now, that if anyone is interested, let me know.
I'm at mikael.bergkvist@naltabyte.se

Liquid is already supported by MioFactory 2.1 at http://www.visicommedia.com
so it's not an entirely pointless work.

Also, POI, I have updated the Liquid homepage.
What do you think? http://www.naltabyte.se/liquid


(^-^)b

Most of my complaints are highly influenced by the fact that you made your editor look like a "real" application though it is DHTML. My expectations were those of a normal application like, for example, EditPlus in which one can edit and test his/hers (D)HTML code.

The new page is better. The lens flares and twirl look a little "cheap"
You should have a look at some big companies/softwares web sites ( macromedia, softimage, ati, adobe... to name some ) to see the things that works and please the visitors.

Best regards,

Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

[This message has been edited by poi (edited 09-29-2003).]