Thanks, that sounds like a credible option. The fact that scintilla is available is obviously a big plus. I'll check it out and see what the current status is.
Bill. 2009/7/17 Case Vanhorsen <[email protected]>: > > On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Bill Hart<[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> As will have been observed, I've been thinking hard over the last few >> weeks as to how we can make MPIR contribution easier. In short it >> would be good to have more core developers. In particular I've been >> working on, or planning: >> >> * Set up a Git repo and encourage its use >> * Write developer documentation >> * Write an FAQ >> * Write an MPIR digest detailing development progress every three weeks >> * Write an MPIR most wanted list, of most needed contributions >> * Write a set of scripts or a program which makes adding new files to MPIR >> easy >> >> In this post I'll concentrate on the last of these which I've been >> looking into for a couple of days. >> >> The idea I had was to begin work on a cross platform windows program >> for MS Windows, OSX, KDE, etc, which would take the pain out of adding >> new files and modules to existing C maths libraries. With a little >> configuration it would essentially write all the boilerplate for the >> user, including stubs for test code, the function being added, and >> basically do all the configure and make stuff that needs to be done >> automatically. >> >> I decided to look into writing a basic programmer's editor, linked >> with Git, which would have this extra functionality of adding >> boilerplate code for new functions. The first step was to write a >> basic windows editor with C syntax highlighting and block folding. >> >> As python is cross platform I looked for libraries for Windows >> development. Initially I found: >> > > Did you look at PyQt? I haven't used it for a long time, but it used > Qt's Designer which worked pretty well and I think PyQt includes the > Scintilla text editing library which does syntax highlighting, etc. > >> * Python 2.6, which is cross platform >> * pygments - for syntax highlighting text, outputting it to rich text format >> * wxPython - a python port of wxWidgets, a cross platform windows library >> * BoaConstructor - a RAD tool for fast development of wxPython code, >> with a GUI designer and IDE >> >> Here are my notes per package: >> >> * Python 2.6 - installs fine on my Windows box. Has a command line and >> a windows editor. No problems with this as far as I know. >> >> * Pygments - is distributed as a python egg. There is a version for >> python 2.6. So I look up how to install a python egg. Apparently the >> easiest way is to use easy_tools. To get that you have to get >> setup_tools. There is no Windows version of this for python 2.6. But >> you can get setup_tools for python 2.6. It is distributed as a python >> egg. Arggh!! >> >> So I uninstal python 2.6 and install python 2.5. I install setup_tools >> and pygments. If I need to use it, I probably can, but see below, as >> stc may be a better option. >> >> * wxPython - installs fine and appears to work. Implements a styled >> text control (stc) widget which has a built in lexer for C++ and the >> ability to syntax highlight C++. It also provides options for block >> folding. It has essentially been designed specifically for writing a >> programmer's editor with all the standard features. Documentation >> however, sucks. In order to implement syntax highlighting, one needs >> to make use of options such as STC_C_COMMENTLINE, which as far as I >> can find, are basically undocumented. >> >> In fact, there is basically no documentation on the wxPython website >> for the stc control. However someone has gone to the trouble of >> attempting to document it here: >> >> http://www.yellowbrain.com/stc/index.html >> >> However, the meaning of the various stc variables is not listed. Only >> a list of possible variables is given, here: >> >> http://www.yellowbrain.com/stc/varwrap.html >> >> The stc also provides a lexer for asm syntax highlighting, though I >> have no idea which asm format it highlights. Again that is >> undocumented, and a google search does not help with finding proper >> documentation for any of the stc. >> >> * BoaConstructor - Installs fine. But full of bugs. >> >> 1) You have to put all graphical widgets down in precisely the correct >> order first go in the GUI designer, otherwise you have to do your >> entire project from scratch, as there is no easy way to change it once >> it is down. For example you can't remove a panel and replace it with a >> sash window if at some point you change your mind. >> >> 2) When any widgets are moved around, they do not render properly. You >> can't see them or they cause blag drag marks across all the other >> widgets. >> >> 3) There's no easy way to select a widget to delete it. The only way I >> have found is to click on it in the inspector, hope that some black >> sizer dots appear, click precisely on one of those dots, then click >> delete. There's no way to graphically select the widget you want to >> delete. >> >> 4) It's impossible to move some widgets. Even selecting them via the >> workaround in 3 does not allow one to move the widgets, as you cannot >> move them by clicking on the sizer dots, you have to click in the >> widget's center, which causes another random widget to be selected. >> >> 5) BoaConstructor crashes frequently, losing your work. And I don't >> mean that python just gives some kind of error message. The whole >> thing actually segfaults and drops you back to the desktop. >> >> 6) If you rename any of the default names, like frame1, that >> BoaConstructor gives the widgets, it loses track of them and you have >> to start your entire project from scratch. This is irrespective of >> whether you rename them in code, the inspector or otherwise. >> >> 7) It is very difficult, though not impossible to figure out how to >> associate menus with options on menubars. The logical way of doing >> this via the inspector has not been implemented. >> >> 8) Many widgets come up with default sizes of zero, or panes of size >> zero. Thus there is no way to see them, resize them, add things to >> them, etc. >> >> 9) BoaConstructor regularly loses the connections between various >> widgets, e.g. if you add a sash window into a split window and a text >> control the other side of the sash in the split window, the inspector >> frequently loses the association. >> >> 10) BoaConstructor checks your code for you, and helpfully prevents >> you from entering the GUI designer if you have written correct code, >> by telling you that you have supplied the incorrect number of operands >> to various functions. If you supply the incorrect number as it wants >> you to, it either doesn't compile, or BoaConstructor simply thinks you >> still have the incorrect number of operands. >> >> So quite clearly BoaConstructor is still far too underdeveloped to be >> stable. It's only a 10 year old project. Using it is pointless. >> >> So perhaps I made the wrong choice. What else is available for GUI >> design which operates with xwPython? >> >> Two other highly recommended options are wxGlade and PythonCard. I >> tried the latter. >> >> * PythonCard - The Windows installer failed. I went back to an earlier >> version of python card. The Windows installer failed. This tells me >> they have precisely zero users on Windows, and they don't know about >> it. Eventually I got the source. I opened the documentation and went >> to the install instructions. I clicked on Windows install and got a >> dead link. I clicked on OSX install and got a dead link. I eventually >> found a document somewhere telling me how to install on some weird OSX >> variant. I got just enough info from that to tell me how to install >> PythonCard. >> >> I started reading how to use it. Instead of being an IDE, it is a DE, >> i.e. it is not integrated at all, but is a serious of completely >> unrelated tools. The source code it emitted was also not doing import >> wx, as I expected, but import card. So it is implemented as a library >> on top of wxPython. Given that this was next to useless I gave up. >> >> * wxGlade - admits on their website that it is not an IDE, but simply >> a designer and the generated code only displays the widgets, and no >> more. It recommends that people after an IDE use PythonCard, >> BoaConstructor or spe. >> >> So I look into that last option: >> >> * spe - the website is shocking. I couldn't make head nor tail of it. >> It appears that you have to download the source code from >> subversion.... Haven't tried that out yet. >> >> So I backtracked at this point and thought, perhaps wxPython is not >> the best choice for a widget toolkit for cross platform windows >> development. >> >> Everywhere I look however, I see two main options recommended. >> wxPython and TkInter, the standard GUI toolkit distributed with >> Python. Apparently every year it is a standing tradition to affirm >> TkIinter as the standard GUI library distributed with Python, however >> numerous people think it is dead, because of wxPython. >> >> Well maybe python is the wrong language for this sort of thing. But >> what else is there Java? Yuck. C++, too much work, though wxWidgets is >> available for C++ and was probably available for C++ first. But I've >> looked for decent RAD and GUI designers for C++ before, and all the >> good ones are commercial. >> >> Probably these days, the hot area to develop such cool tools is over >> the wire, i.e. browser based stuff. But I don't want to reinvent the >> wheel, and I have little experience with anything web related other >> than Javascript, which is far too slow and difficult to code, from >> experience. Too many systems to learn there otherwise. >> >> This is proving to be too frustrating. I'm going to look into spe, and >> also see what the canonical option for RAD/GUI design with TkInter is, >> including looking for an already implemented widget for source code >> highlighting. If I don't find what I am looking for, I'm officially >> giving up on the windows route. >> >> That would leave bash scripts maybe, or a command line C or python >> program. But I've no idea how to make the very complex feature I want >> to eventually implement, work from a command line interface. If I >> start this project, I obviously want it to go a lot further than just >> allowing one to add a few files to maths libraries. I want to add >> parsers which will allow for simplification of various repetitive and >> boring things we have to do over and over again when writing C maths >> libraries. At the very least it will need to parse C code and assembly >> code, but there's a whole lot more to what I had been thinking >> through. >> >> Bill. >> >> > >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mpir-devel" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mpir-devel?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
