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Caled
Sorcerer


Joined: 21 Oct 2000
Posts: 821
Location: Australia

PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 10:55 am   

zeus possibilities
 
Not being a programmer, I really don't "get" zeus at this stage. I don't understand how powerful it is, nor how powerful it will be. I just nod my head at Zugg, place my trust in him, and wait.
I've been searching around, among the project and ideas management tools for something to help solve my current, clunky problem. I'm part of a project, that I'm currently submitting ideas for. Kind of like emobius itself, in a way.
Each evening, I sit down and look at my list of ideas. I add to them, and when one is complete enough, I post it for others in the group to discuss. My problem is keeping the ideas themselves sorted.

I've tried so many different tools from downloads.com and sourceforge.org, that I've given up. I've tried mindmapping tools, project management tools and weird things that were just stupid. I've gone back to swearing foully while I use Excel.
I like to brainstorm ideas in a big list. I type them in, one per line with a couple of keywords so I can go back to them later. When i do go back to them, I drag them around into categories, then stick them onto different sheets. I then tackle each separately etc etc.

So my question is.. would would it be possible to write a plugin for Zeus that could basically be like a big mindmap, with text in boxes to organise ideas, and sheets linked to those boxes with more details in them etc? (does such a thing already exist?) Would it be difficult to write something like that in Zeus? I can see WHY we might want to do it in Zeus - so that emails could be linked to ideas, and ideas when developed could be sent to an email or news forum with the click of a mouse.

What I'm ultimately trying to get out of this question though, is a better understanding of what Zeus is. The definition means bugger all to me Wink
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Kronus
Wanderer


Joined: 13 Jan 2002
Posts: 76
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:39 pm   
 
It's absolutely possible... i don't know how you would do it yet *cough*documentation*cough* but yes, it would be very possible to make a program like that.
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Kjata
GURU


Joined: 10 Oct 2000
Posts: 4379
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:38 pm   
 
Zeus is a development environment.
Think .NET.

It includes a bunch of controls and libraries already compiled to make creating applications fast and painless. Just like .NET, programs written for Zeus are run by another program (Zeus in this case, CRL for .NET). Unlike .NET, programs for Zeus are a collection of objects (with your custom-built objects possibly created in any language that you prefer which is able to produce OLE or COM objects), presented in a layout defined by an XML file and made to work with one another by scripts in any scripting language supported by the Windows Scripting Host. Also, if .NET is at the midpoint between compiled and interpreted languages, Zeus would be at the midpoint between compiled languages and .NET. Most of the functionaility in a Zeus program is compiled code, and only a small part should be interpreted, which eliminates most of the overhead .NET has.

So you get a few advantages over other development environment (including those that do not require programs to be interpreted like Delphi or Visual Studio 6.0 or earlier):
- Zugg's commitment to include the most varied and powerful set of built-in controls in any development environment.
- Ability to easily and painlessly include third-party objects into your programs.
- End user is able to extensively customize the look & feel of your programs.
- Zeus is common to all Zeus-enabled programs, thus your particular program is only as big as the XML file plus any custom objects.
- Most of the functionality of your program is hidden away in the Zeus core which is protected by eLicense, and any custom objects you create have the option of also being protected by eLicense (unlike .NET where reverse engineering a program is trivial and produces code very similar to the original source code).

I'm sure Zugg can think of many more things, but that is basically the essence of it. Also, Zugg, I'm sorry for equating Zeus to .NET, but you must be aware that you can't escape from that. .NET and Mozilla are currently the products that most resemble Zeus.
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Zugg
MASTER


Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:45 pm   
 
Wow! Actually Kjata, you said it better than I could have myself! The comparison with .NET is extremely valid, and you did a great job pointing out the differences and advantages.

The main disadvantage is that anyone who wants to run your application has to buy a copy of Zeus. While Zeus is cheap, that's still different than .NET where it can be downloaded for end-users for free, unless, of course, the developer charges for their application in which case the end user pays in any case.

Also, if you want to do something *really* customized in an external DLL file, then you still need a normal development system like Delphi or Visual Studio in order to create that DLL file.

If you haven't done a lot of application development yourself, then it's natural to be lost and confused about Zeus. I am sure as I am able to document more of Zeus that more people will provide some demo applications that show some of what is possible. Till then, take a look at the demo applications that come with it. Even though they are very small Zeus applications, they already have a lot of functionality. Feel free to load the ZML files into Notepad and take a look at them. The DEMO.ZML is probably the easiest to understand, and it is already documented on the www.emobius.com site as the Tutorial for Zeus. But even the powerful EDITOR.ZML file is fairly straight forward once you get a hang for what a ZML file looks like (and it helps if you already understand XML and HTML).
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