DABBLE

Dabble is a web application framework written in Smalltalk which provides a view of data in a web browser. A Dabble DB is rather like the Seaside web framework as a form of AJAX. What is unique is the rapidity and flexibility with which a web application can be constructed and the ease with which the application can evolve. A Dabble DB application can import data and export data in a variety of formats. With its origin in Smalltalk, Dabble is very forgiving of data type issues when importing or entering data. A Dabble application is rather like a spreadsheet and a flat-file application generated in Javascript. A good introduction is the VANLISP presentation or the Seven minute demo. Comparable frameworks would be Ruby on Rails or Groovy GRAILS.

The Seaside web framework is neither as user-oriented as Dabble nor as focused on providing access to data. Seaside is built on top of Smalltalk and requires a web server such as Swazoo. As such it constitutes a framework more comparable to Rails or Grails. Some Seaside implementations provide the ability to browse Smalltalk classes and edit a web application as it is running rather as if Smalltalk were available in the web browser.

An example of a web browser implementation of Smalltalk is VistaScript for Microsoft IE7 using XAML and the 'everywhere' version of Windows Presentation Foundation WPF-E, but it does not yet provide an application framework comparable to Dabble.

External links

• Smallthought Dabble DB home site.
• Blog by James Robertson.