Re: gnuplot with wxt on MacOS, time for decisions

[Ethan M. <merritt@u.washington.edu>]

On Monday 07 May 2007 12:35, Timoth=C3=A9e Lecomte wrote:
> > (4) Fix the upstream package in OSX
> >
> > It seems pointless to spend all that time re-arranging gnuplot only
> > to the benefit of gnuplot users.  The equivalent amount of work on
> > the OSX equivalent of the GTK layer would presumably benefit ports
> > of many other applications to OSX as well.
> >  =20
>=20
> Well, I wouldn't say so ;)
> First, I don't know of *any* application that use this design. First, I=20
> can't think of any other application that have to mix command lines from=
=20
> stdin with GUI.

They are quite common in my field, and many of them work under OSX.
However, they do so by requiring the user to install X11 and use
that interface.  Hence my option (5).

Most of the recent ones are written in Python; I don't know if that makes
any difference to the toolkits available.
Here's one example where it looks like they are working on an aqua
port in addition to the X11-OSX "hybrid" version we are currently using
    http://pymol.sourceforge.net/obtaining.html
Here's another page that collects info and instructions on interactive
X11-based programs running on OSX. These generally do require mixed
input from GUI and stdin.
    http://xanana.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I have not myself done any OSX development, but for better or worse
I have committed to [supervise the] port of several other apps to OSX,
so in the future I have more insight into the difficulties.
=09
"Mojca Miklavec" <moj...@gm...> wrote:
> If I had to use X11, I would prefer to stick with AquaTerm, even
> though it's functionality (esp. mouse) is limited. X11 is really the
> last resort to consider. (I never use this word, but X11 really
> "s*cks" on Mac.)

There may be a misunderstanding. I wasn't proposing that they use the
x11 terminal.  I was proposing the we require x11-based wxWidgets+cairo+pan=
go
support libraries for OSX so that the wxWidgets-based wxt terminal can
be built.  As to whether X11 sucks on Mac, I don't know.  People in the
lab here seem to be happy with the OSX ports of X11-based interactive
graphics programs we use.  Maybe a native port would be better yet,
but I don't hear a loud clamor for someone to put in the work.=20

=2D-=20
Ethan A Merritt            Courier Deliveries: 1959 NE Pacific
Dept of Biochemistry
Health Sciences Building
University of Washington - Seattle WA 98195-7742