On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I'm personally not going to write such an editor, but one of the > reasons I changed the binding configuration functions to use strings > was to make it easier to write a configuration editor. (The other > reason was that a lot of people seem to have trouble understanding > function references.) Also I've reduced the amount of functions > normally used in configuration files (single defbindings etc.), so > it should be quite easy to write a configuration editor. It is not > even necessary to use Lua to write the editor, but it is perhaps > easiest to read the configuration files by defining or exporting > that small set of functions to Lua and having it execute the > files. My wrapper generator (mkexports.lua plus luaextl/) is perhaps > the easiest to use for C programs (it should be relatively > independent of rest of Ion and I should perhaps repackage it as a > standalone library dependant only on libtu) as it doesn't require > any extra definition files unlike SWIG or toLua. For C++ there may > be an even better solution, whose name I can't recall now, based on > templates.
I think a GUI configuration editor is almost indispensible if you want to reach more users. I am an experienced C, Perl, Lisp, and Java programmer, and I find Lua confusing, even after reading their docs. It's just not an easy language. Can I make one simple suggestion? Allow, through Lua or C, the direct import of a few simple types of keybinding declaration from a plain text file. It should be a very simple syntax, no Lua involved. The user needs to be able to remap the ability to run a program, split H/V, delete the current frame, move around, and show/hide the dock. I know some of this is complex in Lua terms, but I really think it can be abstracted to a simple syntax suitable for editing without Lua. Someone mentioned INI file syntax can be done with Lua - that will work fine. Once the format is set, writing a GUI to set these configuration options is trivial and I'd love to do it or help with the effort. If you disagree that this is useful, then maybe I can write the code. As I said, I find Lua confusing and it will take me a while, that's why I'm asking you and the other Lua experts here for help. Ted
