[gui-talk] Introducing Homer.NET -- rapid application development tools

[Jamal Mazrui]

Now available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/hnsetup.zip

Homer.NET is a collection of libraries and executables to assist rapid
application development with .NET-based languages.  It includes
functionality related to accessing Internet data, creating GUI forms, and
using screen reader APIs.  This is the first public beta.  Below is the
overview section of the documentation (in Homer.NET.txt or Homer.NET.htm).

Jamal

Homer.NET
Beta 0.72
September 18, 2009

Copyright 2009 by Jamal Mazrui
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)

The word "Homer" is a brand name I sometimes use for developer tools I
create.  Homer.NET is a set of developer tools for the .NET platform.  I
suggest unarchiving hnsetup.zip into a new directory, e.g.,
C:\Homer.NET

   There are three assemblies that define types in the Homer namespace.
HomerJax.dll defines the Jax class containing static methods for accessing
Internet resources.  HomerAcc.dll defines the Acc class containing static
methods for producing speech through an active screen reader, and other
accessibility-related tasks.  HomerLbc.dll implements classes for creating
Windows forms conveniently via "Layout by Code" rather than a
visually-oriented designer.

The Lbc class has static methods for a variety of canned dialogs.  The
LbcForm class inherits from System.Windows.Forms.Form, and has instance
methods and properties for adding controls to a form, which may be either
a modal dialog or modeless window.

JaxForm.exe is an interpreter for source code files written in JScript
.NET.  Such code can access any of the Homer.NET functionality.
JaxFormW.exe is a Windows-only version that does not use a console mode
environment.  That environment is useful when developing and debugging a
.js script (e.g., the print function), but often not appropriate at the
production stage.

Interactive JScript (InJs) is a REPL (read execute print loop) environment
for testing JScript expressions, including functionality of Homer.NET.
Load the program by running InJs.exe.

Batch files starting with the word "Compile" build the Homer.NET
assemblies from source code using compilers provided with the .NET 2.0
SDK.  Batch files beginning with the word "Run" execute a JScript .NET
file dynamically.  The .js files illustrate functionality of Homer.NET.

Samples of Homer.NET include compiled C# and VBNET fruit basket programs
implemented with Layout by Code.  A more sophisticated sample is executed
with JaxForm via RunLbcDemo.bat.  It includes a tip on the status line for
each control and a menu system.  All of this is done without any need to
reference pixel coordinates for location or size.  More specific layout
information could be added if desired.

RunJaxDemo.bat illustrates HomerJax functionality, including how you can
easily get the content type, source HTML, or plain text of a web page; how
you can download a file to disk, how you can translate between languages
via the Google API; how you can read recent RSS items from
AccessibleWorld.org; how you can list MP3 files from AccessibleWorld.org;
how you can get messages from the public timeline of Twitter.com, or poast
a tweet if you have a Twitter account.  The demo shows how data is
converted from JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to what I call COM
exchange format, and how XML data may be conveniently accessed as well.

The functionality and documentation of Homer.NET will improve over time in
response to comments, questions, and suggestions.  Code contributions are
also welcome.