[GRASS-dev] Vote for your favorite zoom out

[tlaronde at polynum.com]

On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 02:17:02PM +1300, Hamish wrote:
> 
> aside: will KerGIS stick with Curses/TclTk for the GUI or switch to
> something more "modern"?

KerGIS doesn't use TclTk and won't.
I use the term "tk" for "ToolKit", but this has nothing to do with 
TclTk. This is simply a naming scheme to show that some library is
a tool kit library built upon a more basic set of facilities
(cursestk is the tool kit built upon Curses, and was called VASKLIB).
The basic libraries are found in lib/, and the toolkits in usr/lib.

The aim is to clearly separate processing of data from interfaces.
There will be, finally, 3 versions and, if done correctly, people
wanting another interface could do it easily (when the split is
done) :

Cursestk/Drawlib /* DRAWLIB was RASTERLIB. This one exists */

Athena/Drawlib	/* because Athena is standard with X distribution */

Motif/Drawlib

In fact, using the references for curses and the Athena widget (both are
simple) is a good help to see the common things about the gestion of
windows, and is not a bad idea before going to something more complex.
And I want to stick strictly to C, hence the choices.

The 3 will give exactly the same possibilities (with the same shortcuts)
even if the interfaces are obviously quite different. On working on this
I will see if it is possible to derive the 3 versions from some kind of
common description (I have some very fuzzy ideas at the moment,
experience will tell if it is achievable or not; but the first step is
to separate processing from interface, in v.digit(1) for example).

I don't plan to drop the curses interface: it has its uses, and text
menus (with short cuts) contrary to pixmap buttons are something I 
personnally like (I have a huge experience with CAD programs that I use
almost exclusively with keyboard, whether shortcuts or typing commands
--- Microstation for example; and in fact I want to add a command line
with a basic interpreter to v.digit(1) for example to launch facilities
on the map displayed [or to register the operations for replay or undo]).

The work on the interfaces is planned for after the release of 1.0. (not
for 1.0 that has already been delayed too much).

KerGIS has less requisites than GPL GRASS since it is aimed to run on a
POSIX node, period (I don't care about Windows users: if they want to be
able to run it they have to provide a POSIX environment
and this is their problem, not mine), and since only X Window will be
supported by default (others can port the DRAWLIB to other things if
they want).

But I'm a freak ;)
-- 
Thierry Laronde (Alceste) <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                 http://www.kergis.com/
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