nextpe-devel — Developpement mailling list

Re: [NextGenPE-devel] Plans etc..

[NextGen P. E. m. l. <nex...@li...>]

gRRosminet wrote:

> I have looked for useful components (specily for text 
> editing) and found wxScintilla... The major problem with such a 
>  component is that it is only available for  windows and GTK...

Another reason for writing an editor oneself is that even scintilla does
not have some features one might want - adding them to an editor you
write yourself may be easier.  wxWidgets 2.8.0 now has a wxRichTextCtrl
which looks good - better than the old wxTextCtrl.  When it was just
wxTextCtrl, I found for an assembler I was writing that I needed to roll
my own editor window based on wxScrolledWindow.  Scintilla didn't do
what I wanted and would have brought in more code than I wanted to.
wxTextCtrl had too serious limitations, most notably on control of
scrolling - though I did try using it at first.

> ...as you might know, DDE is a 
> proprietary technology from Microsoft and then requires to be adapted in 
> an other way to run on Linux/Unix ... this is double work

Good point.  There is also wxTCPClient as an alternative to wxDDEClient,
and that is cross platform, but that then has a disadvantage that XPE
would pop up a security alert the first time it is run under WindowsXP
(because of default WindowsXP firewall settings).

wxWidgets is missing a communications class that will wrapped a named
pipe nicely.  When I'm next at the wxWiki I may suggest it.

> If you take a look at XPE source code, you'll see that options dialog is 
> using my global framework and then is quite efficient on reducing 
> repetitive code. 

Well...  I have looked there now, and the code is more repetitive than
it needs to be, but absolutely fine for the number of config variables
that you have AT THE MOMENT.  It only really makes sense to go to the
lengths Audacity does to reduce the repetition when there are a much
larger number of parameters.  Yes.  At the moment introducing ShuttleGui
would be overkill.  It would add more code than you save.  Anyway it's
possible to retrofit it at a later stage.  That's what happened to
Audacity when the config classes got too large and unmanageable.

Are you open to other developers contributing to XPE, and if so, what
aspect would you most like them to look at?

--James.

Re: [NextGenPE-devel] Plans etc..

[NextGen P. E. m. l. <nex...@li...>]

NextGen Povray Editor mailling list a écrit :
> Have you looked at XCE, the xml-copy-editor, i.e. text file editor for XML?
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/xml-copy-editor
>
> I recently downloaded the sources and executable.
> It's good.  It's C++, wxWidgets and using wxStyledTextControl for the 
> folding syntax-highlighting editor.
>   
I didn't look for any existing projects that would do something  like 
what I want. I have looked for useful components (specily for text 
editing) and found wxScintilla (on which wxStyledTextControl is based). 
The major problem with such a component is that it is only available for 
windows and GTK and this is unaccceptable for me : many users asked to 
run QTPE on machines with a minimalist GUI (servers running proprietary 
Unix). Then I have written my proper code editor (which is very less 
powerfull than wxScintilla but completely portable).
> It might be worth mining that code for useful pieces.  For example there 
> is some code that at start-up checks for an already running instance of 
> the editor, e.g. if one double clicks on another XML file.  If there is 
> a copy of the editor already running the file-open command is passed to 
> it using wxDDE.
>   
Such features are realy usefull but as you might know, DDE is a 
proprietary technology from Microsoft and then requires to be adapted in 
an other way to run on Linux/Unix ... this is double work : I prefere 
something completely portable and so easiest to maintain (I realy hate 
to reboot under windows to search for some specific bug).
The example was bad but the idea is good of course, I'll try to spend 
some time at examining this application.
> Another application possibly worth code-mining is Audacity.  There is a 
> class ShuttleGui in it that drastically reduces the amount of code you 
> need for constructing custom dialogs.  The complex preferences dialog in 
> Audacity is created using it.  ShuttleGui also does the exchange to and 
> from variables using the same definition.  It cuts out a lot of 
> repetitive code.
>   
If you take a look at XPE source code, you'll see that options dialog is 
using my global framework and then is quite efficient on reducing 
repetitive code. Moreover, the XPE framework beeing already written, 
integrated, functionnal, there is no reason to change for something else 
certainly not to mix it with other interfacing tools.
> I'll have a look at QTPovEditor to get a better idea of where you're 
> heading.
>
> --James.
>   
gRRosminet
>
> NextGen Povray Editor mailling list wrote:
>   
>> James wrote :
>>     
>>> Great! wxWidgets and C++.
>>>
>>> I'm looking for synergies between wxWidgets projects - particularly
>>> identifying widgets that are missing, that will be of use in more than
>>> one project.
>>>
>>> What are the current plans for neXtgen Povray editor?
>>>
>>> --James.
>>>
>>>       
>>
>> XPE (neXtgen Povray editor) is based on full application architecture
>> wich allows easy integration of any new component. Now, I think that any
>> component that can be usefull might be integrated (calculator, file
>> explorer, ...).
>>     
>
>   
>> On the other side, XPE will produce a few components that are not
>> specific to this local usage (like TClock or TGenButton) and so, I would
>> be very pleased to share them with other projects. Theses components are
>> not the only thing wich might be shared : the global framework I have
>> created for XPE might certainly be usefull to other developpments
>> (currently, XPE is a povray editor, but the architecture could be the
>> same for any text editor and usable for any other type panels based
>> application : Video editor, IRC client, mail client, word processor, ...)
>>     
>
>   
>> Currently, XPE is on its very first stage : a text component with some
>> associated tools. The next step is to develop features I have developped
>> for QTPovEditor and then to make it compatible with windows, mac and as
>> much environnments as possible.
>>
>> gRRosminet.
>>     
>
>
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>   

Re: [NextGenPE-devel] Plans etc..

[NextGen P. E. m. l. <nex...@li...>]

Have you looked at XCE, the xml-copy-editor, i.e. text file editor for XML?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xml-copy-editor

I recently downloaded the sources and executable.
It's good.  It's C++, wxWidgets and using wxStyledTextControl for the 
folding syntax-highlighting editor.

It might be worth mining that code for useful pieces.  For example there 
is some code that at start-up checks for an already running instance of 
the editor, e.g. if one double clicks on another XML file.  If there is 
a copy of the editor already running the file-open command is passed to 
it using wxDDE.

Another application possibly worth code-mining is Audacity.  There is a 
class ShuttleGui in it that drastically reduces the amount of code you 
need for constructing custom dialogs.  The complex preferences dialog in 
Audacity is created using it.  ShuttleGui also does the exchange to and 
from variables using the same definition.  It cuts out a lot of 
repetitive code.

I'll have a look at QTPovEditor to get a better idea of where you're 
heading.

--James.



NextGen Povray Editor mailling list wrote:
> James wrote :
>> Great! wxWidgets and C++.
>>
>> I'm looking for synergies between wxWidgets projects - particularly
>> identifying widgets that are missing, that will be of use in more than
>> one project.
>>
>> What are the current plans for neXtgen Povray editor?
>>
>> --James.
>>
> 
> 
> 
> XPE (neXtgen Povray editor) is based on full application architecture
> wich allows easy integration of any new component. Now, I think that any
> component that can be usefull might be integrated (calculator, file
> explorer, ...).

> On the other side, XPE will produce a few components that are not
> specific to this local usage (like TClock or TGenButton) and so, I would
> be very pleased to share them with other projects. Theses components are
> not the only thing wich might be shared : the global framework I have
> created for XPE might certainly be usefull to other developpments
> (currently, XPE is a povray editor, but the architecture could be the
> same for any text editor and usable for any other type panels based
> application : Video editor, IRC client, mail client, word processor, ...)

> Currently, XPE is on its very first stage : a text component with some
> associated tools. The next step is to develop features I have developped
> for QTPovEditor and then to make it compatible with windows, mac and as
> much environnments as possible.
> 
> gRRosminet.

Re: [NextGenPE-devel] Plans etc..

[NextGen P. E. m. l. <nex...@li...>]

James wrote :
> Great! wxWidgets and C++.
>
> I'm looking for synergies between wxWidgets projects - particularly
> identifying widgets that are missing, that will be of use in more than
> one project.
>
> What are the current plans for neXtgen Povray editor?
>
> --James.
>



XPE (neXtgen Povray editor) is based on full application architecture
wich allows easy integration of any new component. Now, I think that any
component that can be usefull might be integrated (calculator, file
explorer, ...).
On the other side, XPE will produce a few components that are not
specific to this local usage (like TClock or TGenButton) and so, I would
be very pleased to share them with other projects. Theses components are
not the only thing wich might be shared : the global framework I have
created for XPE might certainly be usefull to other developpments
(currently, XPE is a povray editor, but the architecture could be the
same for any text editor and usable for any other type panels based
application : Video editor, IRC client, mail client, word processor, ...)

Currently, XPE is on its very first stage : a text component with some
associated tools. The next step is to develop features I have developped
for QTPovEditor and then to make it compatible with windows, mac and as
much environnments as possible.

gRRosminet.

[Nextpe-devel] Plans etc..

[James C. <cr...@in...>]

Great!  wxWidgets and C++.

I'm looking for synergies between wxWidgets projects - particularly 
identifying widgets that are missing, that will be of use in more than 
one project.

What are the current plans for neXtgen Povray editor?

--James.