[Tfug] Poor man's GUI

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Matt,

On 3/10/2014 10:45 PM, Matt Jacob wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 10, 2014, at 14:46, Bexley Hall wrote:
>> But, IF I DON'T WANT TO BACK THIS WITH ANY JAVA (because that forces
>> the browser to have Java installed), how can I present the "completed
>> form" to the application ("Click 'Submit' to run the application")?
>> I.e., there's no server hiding behind it (that would be an even
>> bigger requirement than requiring Java).
>
> Embed a web server? You'll need to submit the form (HTTP POST or GET) to
> some back-end process that can consume and act on the submitted data
> (Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, etc.). Otherwise, yeah, you'll need
> some heavier front-end technology than just JavaScript.

But I *think* I don't even need that!  I.e., if "Save" (or "Save As")
saves a copy of the web page/form *with* the controls in their
modified states, then a local executable can examine it instead of
having to "submit" it back to an active "server".  I.e., treat
the file system as the "server" (with the caveat that the file
system BY ITSELF can't act on the data)

I guess I need to make some sample "forms" and see what saving them
does based on a variety of browsers...