Ferreteria/v0.6/sys/Readout

the "readout" system

About

The "readout" system allows applications that are doing time-consuming operations to:

• notify a display-controller object when a change has taken place
• update an in-place display of the current status (progress-numbers, changes in mode, etc.)

Background

• This was originally created to enable dynamic display updates in a CLI-mode Futilities app (DBA), but it should eventually be adapted to work in Web mode.
• The clades involved were initially mostly derived from the term "readout", but I eventually found this too confusing and decided to use other terms and carefully document how they work together.

Pieces

current

• The Updater clade provides methods for the process to notify the display-controller when a change has taken place.

planned

• A Panel clade will provide nonscrolling (fixed-location) display services. This allows, for example, a single line of text to be repeatedly updated without scrolling.
  • It should allow for the possibility of multiline displays, as used in FTM and other Futilities apps.
  • A key feature is that it can be called very frequently but will only take the time to update the display at intervals (or when given a final update).

in revision

• The Readout clade is going to be renamed. It currently provides formatting and timing service. Subclasses implement rendering of the status.
• The AReadout clade is going to be renamed. It currently automates creation of a Readout object.