diff options
| author | hallgren <hallgren@chalmers.se> | 2011-10-12 17:03:54 +0000 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | hallgren <hallgren@chalmers.se> | 2011-10-12 17:03:54 +0000 |
| commit | 44d1a5a9f71b03d9aceeccd760a63fcdc45f8bad (patch) | |
| tree | d51076a708997d6f1af6ac0deefd535bbc25f804 /src/www/minibar/about.html | |
| parent | 0aba45560d2033c37c3d2e876e6f3ef89e1554d6 (diff) | |
Improvements of "gf -server" mode and related setup
"gf -server" mode now contains everything needed to run the minibar and
the grammar editor (including example-based grammar writing).
The Setup.hs script installs the required files where gf -server can find them.
These files have been moved to a new directory: src/www.
The separate server program pgf-http is now obsolete.
Diffstat (limited to 'src/www/minibar/about.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | src/www/minibar/about.html | 180 |
1 files changed, 180 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/www/minibar/about.html b/src/www/minibar/about.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..69fba5a9d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/www/minibar/about.html @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html> <head> +<title>About Minibar</title> +<link rel=stylesheet type="text/css" href="minibar.css"> +<meta charset="UTF-8"> +</head> + +<body> +<h1>About Minibar</h1> + +<a href="minibar.html">Minibar</a> is an alternative implementation of the +<a href="http://www.grammaticalframework.org/">GF</a> web app +<a href="http://www.grammaticalframework.org:41296/fridge/">Fridge Poetry</a>. +It doesn't do everything the original Fridge Poetry does (e.g. drag-and-drop is missing), +so I refer to it as a minibar rather than a full refrigerator :-) + +<p> +Some implementation details: + +<ul class=space> + <li>It is implemented directly in JavaScipt. It does not use Google Web Toolkit or any big JavaScript libraries. + <li>It has been tested and found to work in the following browsers: + <ul> + <li>On the Mac: Firefox 3.5 & 3.6, Safari 4.0, Opera 10.10 and + Google Chrome 4.0.249.49. + <li>On Linux: Firefox 3.0.18 & 3.5, Opera 10.10. + <li>On the Android Dev Phone: Android Mobile Safari 3.0.4 & 3.1.2 + and Android Opera Mini 4.2. + </ul> + It does not seem work in Internet Explorer 7 + (there are both styling and scripting issues). + There seems to be some rendering bugs in Chrome 5.0.342.9 β. + <li>The implementation consist of two JavaScript files: + <a href="minibar.js">minibar.js</a> and <a href="support.js">support.js</a> + The latter is also used in + <a href="http://spraakbanken.gu.se/swe/forskning/saldo/ordspel">a couple of + small web apps</a> based on the + <a href="http://spraakbanken.gu.se/sal/ws/">SALDO web services</a>. + <li>To access the GF web service, it uses the + <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON#JSONP">JSONP method</a> + mentioned in the GF + web services paper, which allows the web app to be hosted on a different server + from the GF web service. (To demonstrate this, I put the Minibar demo on + www.cs.chalmers.se, while the GF server that it calls is on + www.grammaticalframework.org.) + <li>As an experiment, it does no use the <code>grammars.xml</code> file, + but instead calls a little CGI script, + <a href="http://www.grammaticalframework.org:41296/grammars/grammars.cgi.txt">grammars.cgi</a> + which lists the .pgf files in the directory, in JSONP format. + (Note: if you want to install this on your own computer, + <ul> + <li>if you click on the link, + the CGI script will be downloaded as <code>grammars.cgi.txt</code>, + but it should be called <code>grammars.cgi</code> and stored on the server + in the same directory as the grammar files. + <li>for CGI scripts to work with lighttpd, <code>"mod_cgi"</code> needs + to be included in the definition of <code>server.modules</code> in the + <code>lighttpd.conf</code> file.) + </ul> + <li>[Added 2010-02-16] There is a button for generating random sentences. + <li>[Added 2010-02-23] All translations are shown, not just the first one, + if there are multiple parses. + <li>[Added 2010-02-25] Next to each translation, there is now a little tree + icon that you can click on to see a drawing of an abstract syntax tree or a + parse tree. If you click on a drawing it collapses back into a tree icon. + <li>[Added 2010-04-09] Preparations to support different ways to access the + grammar: currently we access a PGF server via JSONP, but I would also like + to support AJAX, and local/downloaded JavaScript grammars. + <li>[Added 2010-04-19] A text entry field appears when you click in + the sentence area (with a dashed border). This allows you to enter words by + typing on the keyboard. As you start typing word magnets that don't match what + you are typing are removed. When only one magnet remains, you can press enter + to complete the word. + <li>[Added 2010-04-19] There is a menu for choosing the output language: + you can pick "All" to translate to all available languages, or pick one + particular language. + <li>[Added 2010-04-19] You can pass options to the function + <code>start_minibar</code> to customize the user interface. The default is + <code>{show_abstract:true,show_trees:true}</code> to show the abstract syntax + of parsed sentences, and to show icons that expand to syntax/parse trees next + each translation. + These features can be turned off by setting the fields to <code>false</code>. + <li>[Added 2010-04-30] The grammar menu is omitted if there is only one + grammar in the grammar list. + <li>[Added 2010-04-30] Fewer hardwired constants and new + <code>start_minibar</code> options (server, grammars_url, grammar_list, + show_grouped_translations, delete_button_text) to make + <code>minibar.js</code> more resuable.) + <li>[Added 2010-05-26] The magnets are now created with + <code><input type=button></code> tags to make them clickable in more + browsers. + <li>[Added 2010-05-26] The text entry field is now visible from the start, + and it is removed when no more words can be added to the sentence. When you + press enter, a word is added if there is only one magnet left, + <em>or</em> if what you have entered exactly matches one of the remaining + magnet. + <li>[Added 2010-05-28] Added a link to make it easy to try the same sentence in + <a href="http://translate.google.com">Google Translate</a>.This can be + turned off by passing the option <code>{try_google:false}</code> to + <code>start_minibar</code>. + <li>[Added 2010-06-02] Added support for Help and Feedback buttons, controlled + by the options <code>feedback_url</code> and <code>help_url</code> passed to + <code>start_minibar</code>. + <li>[Added 2010-06-02] New option: <code>default_source_language</code>. + <li>[Added 2010-09-10] Minibar now automatically uses + <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMLHttpRequest">XHR</a> + instead of JSONP when possible (i.e. when the HTML document and the + PGF service are on the same server). + <li>[Added 2010-09-10] The default input language is now the user's preferred + language, if possible. This is implemented by consulting the + <code>userLanguage</code> field in the grammar info output by pgf-server. + <li>[Added 2010-10-27] Keyboard input and completion should now work much + more smoothly: + <ul> + <li>When you press space, the current word will be completed (if incomplete) + and a new magnet will be created. If there is more than one possible + completion, no magnet is created, but the common prefix of the possible + completions is added to the text box. + <li>Instead of asking the server for possible completions every time a new + letter is added to the curent word, minibar only ask for completions for + whole words and then filters the list locally when more letters are entered, + speeding things up when server responses are slow. + </ul> + <li>[Added 2010-10-27] Code restructuring: + <ul> + <li>The PGF server API has been moved to its own file: + <a href="pgf_online.js">pgf_online.js</a>. This + allows it to be reused in other applicaitons without importing the entire + minibar. It also allows minibar to be used with different server + interfaces. <a href="minibar.html">minibar.html</a> has been updated to + show how you use the new <a href="minibar.js">minibar.js</a> and + <a href="pgf_online.js">pgf_online.js</a>. + <li>The minibar code has been rewritten to avoid storing state information + in the document tree and accessing it by referring to named document + elements. The code now also avoids using string literals containing + the names of top-level functions to specify event handlers for buttons + and menus. (The code is no longer introspective, so α conversion + will not change its meaning.) + </ul> + <li>[Added 2010-11-09] Some new documentation: + <ul> + <li><a href="gf-web-api-examples.html">gf-web-api-examples.html</a>: + examples illustrating the PGF server API provided by + <a href="pgf_online.js">pgf_online.js</a>. + <li><a href="example.html">example.html</a>: a minimal example of a web + page that uses <a href="pgf_online.js">pgf_online.js</a> to talk to the + PGF server. + </ul> + <li>[Added 2011-03-03] Added a button to display word alignment. + <li>[Changed 2011-03-22] Don't force focus to the typed input field + after every word. On touch-based devices, the on-screen keyboard kept + popping up after every word, which was very annoying if you were + entering a sentence by tapping on the magnets. + <li>[Changed 2011-08-03] Moved the initialization code in minibar.html to + <a href="minibar_online.js">minibar_online.js</a>. + <li>[Changed 2011-08-08] For improved modularity and reusability, + two smaller objects have been factored out from the Minibar object: + Input and Translations. These have been placed in two separate files: + <a href="minibar_input.js">minibar_input.js</a> and + <a href="minibar_translations.js">minibar_translations.js</a>. + Some common auxiliary functions have also been moved to a separate file: + <a href="minibar_support.js">minibar_support.js</a>. + <li>[Added 2011-08-09] Added some <a href="minibar-api.html">Minibar API</a> + documentation. + <li>[Changed 2011-08-22] Quick fix to allow literals to be entered: + if you press Enter, the current word will be accepted, even if there are no + matching completions. + (You can now use names of people when constructing sentences in the Letter + grammar, for example.) +</ul> + +<hr> +<small class=modtime> +<!-- hhmts start --> Last modified: Mon Aug 22 19:31:37 CEST 2011 <!-- hhmts end --> +</small> +<address> +<a href="http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~hallgren/">TH</a> +<img src="http://www.altocumulus.org/~hallgren/online.cgi?icon" alt=""></address> +</address> +</body> </html> |