[Gnumed-devel] cross-platform

[s j tan]

QT sounds a little restrictive when it comes to windows.  Java is ok for
client’s that are > Pentium 1 or 2 I think, and I’ve not had much 
problem getting java apps to run in windows and linux ( I always get
them to run in both platforms) : on the other hand, I’ve never written
much more than a student app. After expending the effort doing the
basics of an app in java, I tended to go with what I know and the gui 
has stuff like a well-known oz app like dialog for searching, desktop
with multiple inner frames for multi-patient opening, 
 instead of like the current python gui ( because I don’t really know
how it’s supposed to work, in enough detail).
3 years ago, I was a bit rueful that I didn’t get to implement a
clinical app before the modelled commerc app  because it really does
look like someone sat 
down and  worked out the gui whilst using it to work (e.g. arrow keys
will move between search element and list, one click selection
of scripts, leaving other hand free to hold the patient’s list of
scripts he wants, instead of standard ctrl select click for non-range
multiselection in a list).  I don’t know why dialogs are not seen as a
good metaphor when most apps still use them ( some apps just have made
the dialogs multitabbed and much more complex), except that in some
platforms,  its hard to control a toplevel dialog ( they can get lost
behind other frames, or get accidently minimized, in unix and macs ).
The criticism with the modelled app would be that it seems way too
complex for what gets mostly used – too many tabs; also , pathology
checking is not integrated per patient ( why can’t it both be available
in the holding bay and an unchecked list per patient) , and it may be
hard to to find a record by what one does or by patient vital stats
(age, sex) than by patient identity. The other thing might be
non-concurrent opening of medical records, which root object updating
using hibernate would not address ( unless there is callback update for
parts of the root object from server to client: about as hard as using
CVS , I suppose ;) 

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