Re: Here's a gui app builder

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "PJ" == Paul E Johnson <address@hidden> writes:

PJ> WideStudio http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~uj3s-hrby/EE/index.html

The idea of this program is that you build some screen layout using
an application builder and then it generates C++ code that you compile
and use as a component in a C++ application.  It presents the same
user and programming interface to Windows and Unix users which is good.

PJ> Concerning WideStudio, I am not proposing it for Swarm, but I do
PJ> think it is interesting because it is a self contained, multi
PJ> platform gui builder, and if I had a way to tell it about swarm
PJ> classes, then I could build a gui swarm program. 

Using Swarm's XPCOM support with WideStudio ought to work.  It's a
matter of importing headers and having the XPCOM libraries in the
dynamic linker path.  [One thing people don't seem to get about Mozilla
is that it is really just a bunch of components.  The XPCOM support is
separate from the JavaScript engine and is separate from the layout,
separate from the DOM, etc.  There's no sense in which you have to start
up a web-browser to have access to them.]

PJ> If Swarm classes could "reflect" their variables and methods out
PJ> to a gui like WideStudio, it could be really fun.  

I don't see how this would work with WideStudio, i.e. it doesn't
seem to be set up for dynamic manipulation of a running program.

PJ> Maybe I have to learn c++ and translate some base Swarm libraries
PJ> into that format in order to talk to a program like this.

Just to clarify, there are no plans to push C++ on the Swarm
community.  C++ is a complex language and not suitable for most
experimental kinds of agent-based modeling.  While one benefit of the
XPCOM feature in Swarm is that C++ is supported, that was a
side-effect and not a goal.

Btw, here's a Mozilla-based IDE:

   http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo

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