[Pythonmac-SIG] PackageManager link broken?

[Drew McCormack]

> If the model is entirely in platform independent modules, is there 
> something wrong with having a few flavors of UI on top?  Is it really 
> so hard to maintain a PyObjC Package Manager (that acts like Mac users 
> want it to act), a Win32 Package Manager (that acts like Win32 users 
> want it to act), and a generic X11 Package Manager (that acts.. in 
> some way).. A curses Package Manager would also be great (a la 
> dselect), on top of, of course, a command line utility for 
> querying/installing packages.  I think there's too much impedance 
> mismatch on how Mac, Win32, X11, and ssh users like their applications 
> to work to use the same UI for all three.  Especially for the ssh 
> users :)  Maybe Win32 and X11 users would be happy with using the same 
> Tkinter or wxPython GUI, but I think that Mac users tend to much 
> prefer UIs designed for the Mac.
>
> I enjoy PyObjC development and wouldn't mind writing a PyObjC 
> equivalent to Package Manager.. it wouldn't be very big or hard to 
> maintain, and it would have the added benefit of being intuitive for a 
> user of other Cocoa applications.  Another thing is that a PyObjC 
> application of about the same complexity as wxPackageManager takes 
> about 3 seconds to start (bounces right up until the UI shows) where 
> wxPackageManager takes about 10 seconds to start (bounces twice, then 
> just sits there with no UI for 8 or 9 seconds).  wxPackageManager also 
> does not respond to cmd-Q, but I'm sure that's fixable?
>
> -bob
>
MVC baby!

I am yet to see an app using a cross platform GUI API that felt right 
on the mac. If you use MVC, maintaining separate GUIs is not a big 
deal, and leads to a much better user experience.

Often that is the difference between people actually using something, 
and not using it. It can be as important as the functionality the app 
provides. It's human nature to think that something that feels like 
cr*p, is cr*p.

So I'm with Bob on this one. Give Package Manager a nice PyObjC UI.

Drew McCormack