### Premise
HTML sucks for people. Computers can read and parse trees efficiently, but HTML poorly reflects our outlook on the world. Object-Oriented front-end design will encourage developers to think of web applications as a collection of objects => containers, widgets, and forms, each with unique (or grouped) styling and locations.
### Structure
Ironically, Ivory's basic structure is a tree (but inheiritance is naturally such a structure.)
- **DSObject** [The base object]
* Content
+ Button
+ Label
+ Link
+ Textbox
* Media
+ HTML5Audio
+ HTML5Video
+ FlashAudio
+ FlashMovie
+ Image
* Group
+ Form
+ Input
+ List
+ Table
- **Location**
- **Event**
Locations are based on either absolute distance from the origin (upper left being 0,0) or relative location within the screen (upper left being 0%, 0%). This allows for greater flexibility, as objects can absolutely or relatively position themselves based on attributes of other objects. (Variables! So Meta!)
Events are basic javascript event-handlers, attached to objects. Their events will be directly compiled into JS, though CSS3 and HTML5 specifications are preferred for everything else (animations, etc.)
### HTML / CSS Compilation
Ivory takes a top-down approach. Each object which inheirets from DSObject should include both a to_html and to_css method. Each of these takes care of the basic structure of its own HTML/CSS, allowing the objects it encapsulates to call their own respective methods.
### Style Conventions
+ lines should be <= 80 characters in length
+ prefer getters and setters for instance variables when possible (self.width over @width)
+ use classes, modules, and methods in the Utility folder whenever possible. using Class#defaults to define defaults, getters, and setters is one example to clean up initialization code
+ every object which inheirits from DSObject should allow initialization with a hash of attributes. The #define_attributes method is included for this purpose.
## ¡¡¡¡¡¡ LICENSE !!!!!!
This License (and the README) must be included with the distribution of this code. If you like what we've done and meet us at a conference or on the streets, you are obligated to purchase us a beer. Other than that, Ivory is here to make your life better and design a better front-end. So stop reading this and go do it!