From: <bra...@om...> - 2004-09-13 18:58:14
|
Steven D'Aprano <st...@cy...> wrote on 09/13/2004 05:45:35 AM: > On Sat, Sep 11, 2004 at 12:59:14PM -0500, Brad Allen wrote: > > > Here is the first question: Am I crazy for considering PythonCard for > > use in a production environment? PythonCard is obviously not yet > > mature, and still has many gaps in the feature set, not to mention > > bugs. On the plus side, it seems to me that when users report bugs on > > this mailing list, they are generally identified quickly and fixed. > > It also seems to me that if we run into problems or gaps in the > > PythonCard feature set, we can fall back on the more mature wxPython, > > and so have a mix of wxPython and PythonCard in our GUI logic. Also, > > because PythonCard is open source, we can look under the hood figure > > out what's wrong if we need to. Is this a fair assessment? > > It sounds like you've already answered your own question. Perhaps you are > looking for something that you can take to your bosses and show them a > "real" [cough] application, something with grunt. Well, FileMaker was ok when our needs were simpler, but it didn't scale well as our application grew in complexity. FileMaker 7 addresses some of these issues, but we'd be looking at a complete rewrite. Meanwhile, most of the other company databases are on SQL Server, so it makes sense to move in that direction. And, yes, Python has a lot more "grunt" than FileMaker. > Perhaps not quite Microsoft Office written in PythonCard, but something > like MYOB or Quickbooks? This is a custom in-house application; it won't have the sophistication of a commercial app, but it does need to be stable and have a streamlined user interface to allow users to work quickly (web interfaces are too slow and limited, and don't have access to the local filesystem on Macs). > > Second question: Do you see PythonCard as primarily a tool for > > building GUIs for small, simple apps, or do you think it will scale > > well to more complex apps, in terms of managing that complexity ? > > The app I'm imagining will require many windows, many dialog boxes, > > dynamically changing global menus, contextual menus, keyboard > > shortcuts (including function keys), and validation for data entry > > fields. It would also be nice but not required to have search results > > that populate as the user types, layouts changing within a given > > window, tab order between fields, drag & drop of files onto fields to > > populate paths, user-draggable icon objects, and tabbed interface in > > some windows. > > That sounds less like a question about PythonCard itself and more like a > question about your ability to design and manage the GUI. Unless I'm badly > mistaken, PythonCard can provide all of those interface objects. Good; that's what I was hoping to hear. Over the past couple of days, I've found ways to do some of those things, though I didn't see a widget for a tabbed interface in Resource Editor, and am not clear on how to produce a contextual menu. > Can PythonCard talk to your database (assuming you have one)? Knock up a > quick test to see. If it fails, again you've saved yourself a lot of time. I'm not concerned about PythonCard connecting to the database; that's a job for Python itself. > The idea is, before you commit to 1000 man-hours to build the application, > commit to 30 hours to build a few test apps and run some benchmarks. I will do as you advise, and build a test application; thanks! |