30 March 2011

Reuseable frameworks for building applications

A month or so ago, I started working on an Android app that will allow you to develop applications on the Android itself. I'd found one application that allows you to add minor scripting on phone events, but haven't found anything as encompassing as what I'm working on. It could be out there, certainly, but the task is the fun part no matter if it's been done before.

Working through the application, I'm remembering how many times I've encountered this before. I'd written several script interpreters, the best of the bunch using the brilliant Boost Spirit Parser library. Where I currently work, they use a Sterling Software application to create order capture pages. Two previous companies I'd worked at (not Sterling) had products that were also based on building applications within an application. At one, I ported a very simplified version of the desktop version to WinCE. Similar to DSLs, these were domain-specific platforms. You couldn't write a word processing application within them, but you could write a training application or a set of intelligent data entry forms. I know I've thought this before, but as often as this task is written and rewritten, can't this be made generic somehow?

[ posted by sstrader on 30 March 2011 at 8:45:06 PM in Programming | tagged android ]