V - GUIDO !!! was Re: Pirate -> RAD

[David Oppenheimer]

Dear Phil,

I don't know quite how such a program could utilize Parrot.  I am not averse to
making such a program as V - GUIDO compatible with the other major GUI tool kits such
as Tkinter and PyGtk except for the fact that this would involve a tremendous amount
of additional work for each GUI tool kit (Unless Parrot does some kind of "magic" so
that I wouldn't even have to concern myself with that).  There are different looks
and feels to all of the GUI tool kits out there.  How would Parrot account for these
differences?  Would a user of V- GUIDO choose which kind of code they wanted the
program to output,  and then a Paxo file with an argument for that type of output be
sent to Parrot and then Parrot would do this on its own?

I don't know how much additional work would be involved to maintain compatibility  as
the tool kits themselves change.  It would help to understand exactly how Parrot
works and how Paxo works.  I am not averse to incorporating useful existing code into
this program just as long as it makes things easier not just more complicated.

The advent of a WYSIWYG GUI tool such as V - GUIDO will be a great advance and may
help to give Python a bigger following.  The trick will be to make it easy enough for
a beginner to use and at the same time powerful enough for an advanced programmer to
want to use it too.   I have been looking at several GUI makers out there to figure
out which features would be good to include.

Would it be appropriate to bring the the GUI SIG back from the dead and make this a
formal ongoing project?  Instead of arguing about which GUI tool kit is better, we
could focus our energies on creating V - GUIDO and making it compatible with all of
the major GUI tool kits.

Sincerely,

David Oppenheimer

"Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology Is Indistinguishable From Magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke

P.S.  Lets make some magic happen !


Phil Hunt wrote:

> In article <37D1F135.6F242B93 at megsinet.net>
>            davidopp at megsinet.net "David Oppenheimer" writes:
> > I have an idea for creating a  WYSIWYG  GUI builder for Python that
> > will allow you
> > to create slick looking GUI's just by dragging and dropping elements into a
> >  visual
> > design space that will output code into wxPython.
>
> Why just wxPython? Python has lots of GUI toolkits, e.g. Tkinter,
> PyGtk, etc. Why not work with all of them?
>
> > After a user was satisfied
> >  with
> > the appearance of the GUI, the program would output the code into
> > wxPython code
> > which would be seamlessly integrated with the code that had already
> > been written inside of a design space (make it so that it would
> > work flawlessly as either a
> > component of the major IDE's including PythonWin, IDLE, Python in
> > a DOS box or
> > have it callable from a command line).  It will also be able to
> > take written
> >  code
> > and show a preview of what your GUI would look like without having
> > to first save the program and run it thru the Python interpreter.
> > This would allow you to
> > instantly see the effect of changes made to your code. It would be
> > awesome to
> > integrate it seamlessly with the PythonWin IDE and also be callable
> > from the
> > command line in IDLE or Python in a DOS box.
> >
> > If you would like to join with me in this creative endeavor
> > (code name V - GUIDO which stands for Visual Graphical User
> > Interface Development Optimizer), I would be happy to share the
> > details with you.
>
> I like the name!
>
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > David Oppenheimer
> >
> > P.S. This is still just in the brainstorming stage right now.  I am doing
> > conceptual planning right now; features, how it should look, how it should act,
> > etc.  I would ask anyone who is serious about doing such a project to join
> >  forces
> > with me and see if we can make something happen.
>
> I think there is a lot of potential for V-GUIDO to work with Parrot.
>
> For example, V-GUIDO could use Parrot's XML output format
> (i.e. ``Paxo'' format) as its file format.
>
> This would mean that V-GUIDO wouldn't have to include a code generator;
> it could use Parrot's. Also, V-GUIDO would be able to produce code
> for any of Parrot's backends; these will include Tkinter and wxWindows,
> and other Python and non-Python backends.
>
> e.g:
>
>  [V-Guido] --> (Paxo file) --> [Parrot] --> (Python/wxWindow code)
>                                         or
>                                         --> (Python/Tkinter code)
>                                         or
>                                         --> other formats
>
> Alternately V-GUIDO and Parrot could both use the Glade XML format.
>
> --
> Phil Hunt - - - - - - - - -  philh at vision25.demon.co.uk
>  - Linux will be 8 years old on 17th September! See: -
> http://www.vision25.demon.co.uk/prog/linuxbirthday.html