registers ticking, but objects not showing

lib/base/constant_view.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+require_relative "element_view"
+
+class ConstantView < ElementView
+
+  def initialize class_or_id , text = nil
+    @class_or_id = class_or_id
+    @text = text
+  end
+
+  def draw
+    @element = div(@class_or_id , @text)
+  end
+
+end

lib/base/element_view.rb

@@ -4,10 +4,20 @@ class ElementView
     @element = nil
   end
 
+  #abstract function that should return the single element that is being represented
+  # the element is also stored in @element
   def draw
     raise "implement me to return an Element"
   end
 
+  # helper function to create an element with possible classes, id and text
+  # The first argument is a bit haml inspired, so "tagname.classname" is the format
+  # but if tagname is ommited it will default to div
+  # also several classnames may be given
+  # if one of the names ends in a ! (bang) it will be assigned as the id
+  # second argument is optional, but if given will be added as text (content) to the newly
+  # created Element
+  # return the new Element, which is not linked into the dom at that point (see << and add*)
   def div name_class , text = nil
     name , clazz = name_class.split(".")
     name = "div" if name.empty?
@@ -46,9 +56,19 @@ class ElementView
     wrapper << node
   end
 
-  def add class_or_id , tex = nil
-    element = div( class_or_id , tex)
-    element.append_to @element
-    element
+  # add the given element the @element
+  # return the div that was passed in  (use << to return the @element)
+  def add_element div
+    div.append_to @element
+    div
   end
+
+  # create a new element with class and possibly text
+  # add that new element to the @element
+  # return the newly created element
+  def add class_or_id , tex = nil
+    add_element div( class_or_id , tex)
+  end
+
+
 end

lib/base/list_view.rb

@@ -7,18 +7,31 @@ class ListView < ElementView
     @elements = []
   end
 
+  # can be overriden to return a string that will be passed to div to create the root
+  # element for the list. See "div" in ElementView for possible strings
   def root
     "div"
   end
 
-  def draw on
+  # create a root node acording to the "root" function (default div)
+  # draw all chilren and keep the elements as @elements
+  # return (as per base class) the single root of the collection
+  def draw
     @element = div(self.root)
     @elements = @children.collect do | c |
-      elem = c.draw(@element)
-      elem.append_to(@element)
-      elem
+      add_element c.draw
     end
     @element
   end
 
+  # replace the child at index with the given one (second arg)
+  # The child must be an ElementView , which will be rendered and
+  # the old node will be replaces in the live dom
+  def replace_at index , with
+    old = @elements[index]
+    @chilren[index] = with
+    rendered = with.draw
+    @elements[index] = rendered
+    old.replace_with rendered
+  end
 end