Re: wxwidgets terminal

[<tim...@en...>]

Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:

> Timoth=C3=A9e Lecomte wrote:
>
>> In order to make it more user friendly (but it already is, with a litt=
le
>> practice), I thought to write a terminal to wxwidgets=20
>> (hhtp://www.wxwidgets.org), a gui toolkit.=20
>
>
> Somebody else had the same idea recently.  But there's a significant=20
> obstacle, esp. in the way you plan on doing it: licensing.  wxwidgets=20
> is GPLed, gnuplot's license is deemed not sufficiently compatible with=20
> GPL to allow linking GPLed libraries into it.  At least not in=20
> distributed binaries, by the interpretation of the legalese as seen by=20
> the Debian team.

Oh no ! I was aware of the non-GPL licence of gnuplot, but I have not=20
taken it into account when thinking of a wxwidgets terminal. So is there=20
any hope to use one of these wonderful gui toolkits like wxwidgets, gtk,=20
qt, etc. as terminals ?

>
>> be something interesting to make 3rd-party software (like Octave,
>> or Maxima) reach a higher level of usablility.
>
>
> I don't think that adding a GUI to gnuplot will make it any more easy=20
> to use by external programs, who want to control gnuplot themselves,=20
> rather than let the user do it.  They already have enough control over=20
> gnuplot as it is --- the only major exception being that they can't=20
> swallow the gnuplot graph window into their own GUI yet, and that the=20
> Windows version offers no access to its command line output channel.

You're right when you say that external programs want first to control=20
gnuplot themselves. However, I think the user would be pleased to have a=20
little more interaction with the terminal without having to send a new=20
plot command with modified options. That's precisely what you've added=20
with the mouse support. I was dreaming of a terminal with other options...

In fact, I must admit that I had used gnuplot for months before=20
discovering the mouse support (in octave, it's not activated by default,=20
as explained in the gnuplot faq) ! That's why I want to design a more=20
intuitive terminal, regarding this point (toolbar, etc).

When reading the terminal readme and the corresponding API, I have been=20
impressed by its simplicity. As far as I understand, gnuplot owns an=20
entire abstract layer which give really simple drawing commands. It is=20
really ideal to use it with a gui library like wxwidgets.

>
>> But I have a question : wxwidgets is a library for C++, and gnuplot
>> is written in C. So, can I write a terminal for gnuplot in C++ ?
>
>
> Not really.  At least the actual terminal API functions (i.e. those=20
> that go into the termentry struct) have to be C functions, i.e. they=20
> have to be qualified 'extern "C"', in C++ terms.

It's precisely what I've learned on other pages. So the mix between C=20
and C++ should not be a problem, provided the extern "C" magic words.

> Trying to compile genuine, non-trivial C code with a C++ compiler is=20
> generally impossible, dangerous, or both.  It would cause a boatload=20
> of pain in the lower back to translate gnuplot to "C/C++", the strict=20
> common subset of both languages.

Ok, I understand.

I hope we could continue this discussion to find a solution, especially=20
about the license problem.

Timoth=C3=A9e Lecomte