[GRASS-dev] GUI toolkits

[David Finlayson]

I think that many of us are excited about the Python SWIG interface to
the GRASS API because it affords us the opportunity to write entirely
new modules using a higher-level language than C. These new programs
should obey all the standard GRASS conventions for an independent
program.

If a new GUI is developed using Python + GUI toolkit, that is a
separate issue. Python shouldn't have any problems with a complicated
GUI, but there are apparently limits to its performance. I noticed
that Scribus, a sophisticated drawing program that was originally
developed using only Python has switched to QT (C++) for performance
reasons. I wasn't able to find a document describing what the
performance problems were with Python.

Scribus and a future GUI for GRASS would have similar designs. Maybe
someone should contact the Scribus developers and find out what the
limitations were with Python + GUI toolkit?

David

On 5/28/06, Hamish <hamish_nospam at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > 2. GRASS is primarily written in C so if we want to use a compiled
> > > language, C would be the natural choice.
> >
> > This is only relevant if the GUI actually links to GRASS libraries,
> > which isn't necessarily a good idea. The design of the GRASS libraries
> > doesn't really lend itself to persistent applications.
>
>
> does this mean that Python + SWIG is a bad idea?
>
>
> Hamish
>
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-- 
David Finlayson