[Tutor] Multiple front-ends in project

[Alan Gauld]

On 23/06/2023 18:11, trent shipley wrote:
> I have written the simple core logic for a dice rolling program.  It is In
> ./app/core.  I am planning to add more complex helper classes in
> separate files to do more complex things like rolling different kinds of
> dice in one throw, or exploding dice.
> 
> I plan four interfaces, two CLI, and two GUI.

When you say "interfaces" I assume you mean user interfaces?
Or do you include an API so that other programmers can use
your code too?

If we restrict ourselves to user interfaces, did you design
your code to follow the MVC pattern? If so, it should be easy
to implement VC classes for each type of UI, and also Web
or network interfaces if needed later.

If you didn't use an MVC architecture then you should probably
rework the core code to be a model that can speak to views and
controllers. It will make life much easier for everyone.

>    1. A pretty simple CLI with just the basic core functionality.
>    2. A small DSL for rolling dice, with support for complexities like
>    using pre-provisioned numpy probability functions and using in one throw,
>    re-rolls if a result is in a certain range and so on.
>    3. A GUI meeting common requirements for role-playing games.
>    4. A "Scientific GUI" with some, but not all, of the power of the
>    command line and scriptable DSL.

That is a combination of vague waffle and domain specific gobbledegook.
We can't possibly guess what that means.

> *Buried Lead:*
> I am now working on #1 the Simple CLI.  ** How do I arrange things so I can
> run ./app/cli/simple_cli/simple_hdroll_cli_main.py as "$
> python3 shdroll kwargs"? **

Create an alias on your OS?

> Looking to the future, how do I package and distribute my project so it can
> be used conveniently on all three OSes per my design intent. 

Which three OS? There are many more than 3 OS in the world.
Which OS do you have in mind?

I'll take a guess at Windows and MacOS Cocoa as two?
The third could be web(and thee are several options there?!),
CLI, Posix, Unix/CDE, Linux(which desktop>?), MVS, VMS, etc, etc.

 (The command
> line interfaces work like command line commands, The DSL can interpret and
> run scripts, and the GUIs act like native GUI programs for all three OSes.
>  (I am developing on Linux Mint.))

Even stating Linux Mint still leaves us guessing over desktop
 - Cinnamon, Mate, LXDE, etc?

User interfaces are very specific things. You can't even just say
GUI. There are many GUI frameworks and they are all quite different.
Are you using Tkinter, wxPython, pyGTK, Side, or the native toolkits
for each OS - Windows MFC(via pythonwin) or the .NET framework -
possibly via IronPython?! Or Cocoa on MacOS?
Or Java Swing using jython - that would be cross OS, and work on
much more than 3 OS.


-- 
Alan G
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