[Qgis-developer] Add QScintilla2 PyQt module to QGIS Distributions?

[Larry Shaffer]

Hi Tim,

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 12:34 PM, Tim Sutton <lists at linfiniti.com> wrote:
...
>> My opinion is that releasing QGIS with the pre-built addition of this
>> PyQt editor widget (~1 MB compressed) for use by developers, to add
>> embedded text editors, would be very beneficial.
>>
>
> I don't know what others think, but I for one would love to see your
> plugin ship with QGIS by default (ie. have it incorporated into core).
> Doing so would of course simultaneously resolve your request above.

Thanks for the kind words. It's been an enjoyable learning experience
for me. I should have a limited experimental version out sometime next
week.

I'm working on the .ui, .ts, and .qrc compiling tools now, and have
some more documentation to write. Things that will be missing in the
initial release will be: plugin duplication, new plugins from
templates, packaging and uploading to repository, and the tutorial.
Everything else is working fairly well.

Right now I need others to beta-test the core functionality before
spending anymore time on extra features. I've had it running on my new
iMac at work and under Ubuntu Oneiric with 30+ tabs open, without
crashing, albeit the editor gets too glitchy to use.

The interface is intended specifically for reducing the learning curve
to writing plugins. Then, after a small project or two, users might
migrate to a real external IDE and debugging, etc., coming back to the
editor for the packaging tools and user-space
tweaking/testing/browsing.

The editor can always get better, since Detlev's Eric IDE has a
seemingly endless selection of well-coded, modular features written in
PyQt. (QScintilla support is key, though.)


> By the way we have been mulling over updating the plugin template to
> do the following:
>
> - pep8 compliance
> - pylint friendly
> - ship with a unit test framework
> - ship with a ready to roll sphinx project


Some of those sound like good verifications to add to the packaging
tool in the editor as well. The packaging and uploading tools are
intended to ease the repository maintainers' and plugin developers'
burden by helping to ensure proper metadata and file structure/content
prior to submission.

I'm hoping that some other plugin developers will help add new 'use
case' templates, either to the repository or to be included with the
editor. This way, a new user can choose a semi-close template to what
they are thinking of undertaking (e.g. raster manipulation, working
with legend layers, composer usage, etc.)... basically, starter
plugins inline with the conceptual sections of the cookbook.

Regards,

Larry Shaffer
Dakota Cartography
Black Hills, South Dakota