# ETAF

ETAF is a small text-application framework built above the independent [Ebox](../emacs-box) layout and rendering engine.

Its complete public model is:

```text
Component(props, Scope) → View → Renderer → Ebox Node → Emacs buffer
```

Every visible structure uses one form:

```elisp
(name :property value ... child ...)
```

The only child computation bridge is `expr :value`; attribute values are ordinary Elisp expressions.

```elisp
(etaf-view
 (column
  (text :face 'bold "Hello")
  (text
   :color "#687386"
   (expr :value (if ready "Ready" "Waiting")))))
```

Define a Component:

```elisp
(etaf-define-component status-label (&key label)
  "Render a status label."
  :view
  (text :face 'bold (expr :value label)))

(etaf-mount
 "*etaf-demo*"
 (etaf-view (status-label :label "Connected")))
```

`etaf-view` is the single public View constructor. Structural forms do not use quote; quote remains ordinary Elisp data syntax, such as `'bold`. A View returned from ordinary Elisp is explicitly constructed with `(etaf-view ...)` inside `expr`.

## Documentation

- [Architecture](docs/architecture.en.md) · [中文架构](docs/architecture.zh.md)
- [User guide](docs/user-guide.en.md) · [中文用户指南](docs/user-guide.zh.md)
- [Implementation plan](docs/implementation-plan.en.md) · [中文实施计划](docs/implementation-plan.zh.md)

## Load and verify

During development, load the sibling Ebox checkout before ETAF:

```elisp
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/github/emacs-box")
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/github/etaf")
(require 'etaf)
```

Run the complete local gate:

```sh
make check EMACS=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs
```

The gate byte-compiles the implementation, runs the core/Data/Resource/UI/Playground tests, and checks documentation/API boundaries. `etaf-ui` and `etaf-playground` are optional modules and are not loaded by the core facade.