Re:ConstraintJS: A library for creating dynamic web apps
by jules on Thursday June 26, 2014 @06:08AM
(#7948832)
Constraints have two problems though:
1. The semantics of data binding is much better behaved. Constraint solving doesn't have an obvious sweet spot, where you can say that you can solve a certain obvious class of constraints. Which is why you had such a cottage industry of constraint solvers.
2. Data binding is powerful enough for most things you want to express, and for those things that it's not powerful enough for, a generic constraint solver isn't powerful enough for either (e.g. ui layout, you quickly start to want a linear programming solver or something else that's domain specific).
Re:ConstraintJS: A library for creating dynamic web apps
by seanmcdirmid on Thursday June 26, 2014 @06:28PM
(#7951877)
A physics engine is the ultimate constraint solver and works well for problems like layout :)
Unfortunately from what I can tell, ConstraintJS is just another databinding framework without an expressive general constraint solver. It really is too bad that the constraint systems that were explored in the 80s and 90s have yet to resurface (production has just made it to the 70s).