[GRASS-dev] Discussing new GUI toolkit: v.pydigit

[Michael Barton]

Jachym and others,

These look very nice. I don't know anything about programming in Python, but
here is the impression I'm getting from the discussion. I'd like to bounce
this off others potentially interested in contributing to the GUI to see if
I'm misunderstanding.

The jury seems still out between the main contenders for a GUI: QT,
wxWidgets, and GTK.

However, it seems that quite a few researchers are familiar with Python to
some extent. With a few notable exceptions, many of the active contributors
to GRASS development are researchers who know some programming rather than
programmers. This means that there may be a reasonable large group of
potential contributors with some expertise in Python.

There are Python interfaces/wrappers (whatever the correct term is) to all 3
of the main GUI contender platorms. That is a GUI could be produced in
either using relevant Python toolkits. I assume that someone who knew the
'guts' of one of these GUI tool kits could also work on the GUI without
going through Python (correct?). Using Python will probably be slower than
using one of these GUI platforms directly/natively. But this may not matter
if the GUI sets on top of GRASS C modules, maintaining the current modular
architecture that nearly everyone responding appears to like.

So Python versions of QT, wxWidgets, or GTK seem like a promising way to go
in moving GRASS to a more sophisticated GUI platform while retaining a large
potential pool of contributors to building and maintaining a GUI.

Does this seem like a reasonable assessment?

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton



> From: Jachym Cepicky <jachym.cepicky at centrum.cz>
> Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 01:58:52 +0200
> To: <grass-dev at grass.itc.it>
> Subject: [GRASS-dev] Discussing new GUI toolkit: v.pydigit
> 
> Hallo,
> 
> concerning the discussion about new GUI, used toolkit, programing
> language, etc., etc., etc. I started to write script, which could show
> us the way/problems/advantages/disadvantages.
> 
> It is the python script, with GTK+ toolkit (PyGTK). The GUI is build by
> Glade. It took me 3 days include pretty much learning of how the things
> are done by glade/pygtk, to write such an gui. I would say, it is pretty
> fast.
> 
> v.pydigit should be graphical frontend to v.edit. Currently implemented
> functions:
> 
>     * Displaying points
>     * Displaying lines
>     * Digitizing new points
>     * Digitizing new lines (snaping included)
>     * Zoom/Pan menu while digitizing by clicking with right mouse button
> 
>     * Zoom In/Out, Pan
>     * Deleting lines
>     * Deleting points
>     * ...
> 
> Not all function in the list are *really* working, because of currently
> limitations of v.edit (e.g. removing selected features means only mark
> them as removed, the vector file is not touched). But that is not the target.
> Target was to try, how difficult would it be for someone like me, who has only
> limited programing skills (I learn python since 3 months, pygtk sice 1)
> 
> Known problems:
> 
>     * Data reading/writing: Currently, the data are read through
>         v.out.ascii  and the output (new data storing) is made by
>         v.edit
> 
>         Sollution: Swig? OGR?
> 
>     * Raster map display.
>         Sollution: Swig? GDAL? r.out.png?
> 
> Screenshots:
>     http://les-ejk.cz/tmp/vpydigit1.png
>     http://les-ejk.cz/tmp/vpydigit2.png
> 
> Tar.gz:
>     http://les-ejk.cz/programs/grass/v.pydigit-31.5.05-1.tgz
>     
> What do you thing about it?
> Atleast for me, it is usefull experience for next work on g-ps.map ;-)
> 
> Good night! Looking forward to your comments.
> 
> Jachym
> 
> 
> |-- Vdigit
> |   |-- __init__.py
> |   |-- etc
> |   |   |-- grasslogo.png
> |   |   |-- new.boundary.gif
> |   |   |-- new.centroid.gif
> |   |   |-- new.line.gif
> |   |   |-- new.point.gif
> |   |   |-- select.gif
> |   |   |-- v.pydigit.glade
> |   |   `-- v.pydigit.gladep
> |   `-- vdigitGui.py
> `-- v.pydigit
> 
> -- 
> Jachym Cepicky
> e-mail: jachym.cepicky at centrum.cz
> URL: http://les-ejk.cz
> GPG: http://les-ejk.cz/gnupg_public_key/jachym_cepicky-gpg_public_key.asc
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