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digitalmars.D.dwt - DWT in Google Summer of Code?

reply "Mr. Anonymous" <mailnew4ster gmail.com> writes:
Hello,

How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

What do you think?
Mar 03 2012
next sibling parent reply "Sandeep Datta" <datta.sandeep gmail.com> writes:
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.


+1 to that. But I think using using SWT as inspiration for a GUI 
library may not be the best possible choice. I would like to see 
an API which uses D well. Small things like using properties 
instead of getters and setters come to the mind first. I haven't 
looked at the DWT source code but I suspect it may suffer from 
some of the same short comings as SWT.

I have been looking for a good cross platform GUI library but the 
choices available so far (Qt, wxWidgets, GTK+) all come from the 
C++ world (where garbage collection is almost absent) thus 
entangling memory management issues with the GUI API and its 
architecture in general.

I would love to hear some recommendations on terse and powerful 
GUI libraries even if they are not cross platform. I'd seriously 
consider contributing to such a project.

On Saturday, 3 March 2012 at 19:54:56 UTC, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 Hello,

 How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

 What do you think?
Mar 03 2012
parent reply "Jesse Phillips" <Jessekphillips+D gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 3 March 2012 at 21:12:19 UTC, Sandeep Datta wrote:

 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.


 +1 to that. But I think using using SWT as inspiration for a 
 GUI library may not be the best possible choice. I would like 
 to see an API which uses D well. Small things like using 
 properties instead of getters and setters come to the mind 
 first. I haven't looked at the DWT source code but I suspect it 
 may suffer from some of the same short comings as SWT.


At this time we shouldn't be creating a GUI from the ground up,
they do exist (DFL, DUI?). It is however beneficial to have
access to a GUI API available in other languages, SWT, GTK, Qt,
WX.

Now many of these are reaching a state I suppose is considered
complete (with exception to be not supporting the latest).
Possibly selecting one to build a nice D API on top of would be
reasonable.

As for SWT, I don't know what you mean by short comings. All GUI
toolkits have them, but maybe you mean the API is not D like.
Personally the experience I have had with SWT (older DWT) has
impressed me. I really enjoyed the design behind it, my favorite
so for for toolkits I've used. And it seems JFace is the higher
level API, which is great, but I kind of feel that would be a
great place to build a D like API over DWT (but having the same
JFace API is good for current SWT users).

D needs a GUI that is pretty easy to use and really easy to set
up. Then we can move to a nice D layer, then once D has gotten a
true market it will get native implementations and APIs. And also
getting a more complete Entice Designer will also be needed to
really hit that larger market.
Mar 07 2012
parent reply "Tim Keating" <itsallaboutthedyo gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 7 March 2012 at 17:13:02 UTC, Jesse Phillips wrote:

 As for SWT, I don't know what you mean by short comings. All GUI
 toolkits have them, but maybe you mean the API is not D like.


At a cursory glance? The fact that there are numerous library 
classes for interfacing with files, etc. (in base) that duplicate 
functionality that is in both Phobos & Tango, instead of 
modifying the libraries to rely on Phobos or Tango.

The fact that the packages under base have "java" as their TLD.

The fact that the packages for the main widget library seem 
hopelessly intertwingled with Eclipse.

The fact that the library has duplicate code in separate packages 
per platform, rather than using a canonical D pattern for 
supporting this, such as "version."

These are a few things that jumped out at me in five minutes of 
browsing the git repo.

TK
Mar 16 2012
next sibling parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2012-03-16 21:24, Tim Keating wrote:

 At a cursory glance? The fact that there are numerous library classes
 for interfacing with files, etc. (in base) that duplicate functionality
 that is in both Phobos & Tango, instead of modifying the libraries to
 rely on Phobos or Tango.

 The fact that the packages under base have "java" as their TLD.

 The fact that the packages for the main widget library seem hopelessly
 intertwingled with Eclipse.

 The fact that the library has duplicate code in separate packages per
 platform, rather than using a canonical D pattern for supporting this,
 such as "version."

 These are a few things that jumped out at me in five minutes of browsing
 the git repo.

 TK


We're trying to keep to code as close to the original Java code as 
possible. This is all due to making it easier to port future versions of 
SWT.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Mar 17 2012
prev sibling parent reply "a" <a a.com> writes:
On Friday, 16 March 2012 at 20:24:52 UTC, Tim Keating wrote:

 On Wednesday, 7 March 2012 at 17:13:02 UTC, Jesse Phillips 
 wrote:

 As for SWT, I don't know what you mean by short comings. All 
 GUI
 toolkits have them, but maybe you mean the API is not D like.


 At a cursory glance? The fact that there are numerous library 
 classes for interfacing with files, etc. (in base) that 
 duplicate functionality that is in both Phobos & Tango, instead 
 of modifying the libraries to rely on Phobos or Tango.

 The fact that the packages under base have "java" as their TLD.

 The fact that the packages for the main widget library seem 
 hopelessly intertwingled with Eclipse.

 The fact that the library has duplicate code in separate 
 packages per platform, rather than using a canonical D pattern 
 for supporting this, such as "version."

 These are a few things that jumped out at me in five minutes of 
 browsing the git repo.

 TK



The examples also all use the horrible anonymous class thing. A 
GUI library really should use delegates for callbacks.
Mar 30 2012
parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2012-03-30 17:51, a wrote:

 The examples also all use the horrible anonymous class thing. A GUI
 library really should use delegates for callbacks.


You can use delegates as well.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Mar 31 2012
prev sibling parent reply Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2012-03-03 20:54, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 Hello,

 How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

 What do you think?


I think it's a great idea.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Mar 04 2012
parent reply "Mr. Anonymous" <mailnew4ster gmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 4 March 2012 at 16:31:35 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2012-03-03 20:54, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 Hello,

 How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

 What do you think?


 I think it's a great idea.


For beginning, you might want to add it here:
http://prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?GSOC_2012_Ideas
Mar 04 2012
parent reply Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2012-03-04 21:46, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 On Sunday, 4 March 2012 at 16:31:35 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2012-03-03 20:54, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 Hello,

 How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

 What do you think?


 I think it's a great idea.


 For beginning, you might want to add it here:
 http://prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?GSOC_2012_Ideas


Do you think we should add an entry specific for DWT or an entry for a 
GUI-library in general?

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
Mar 05 2012
parent "Mr. Anonymous" <mailnew4ster gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 5 March 2012 at 09:33:53 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2012-03-04 21:46, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 On Sunday, 4 March 2012 at 16:31:35 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:

 On 2012-03-03 20:54, Mr. Anonymous wrote:

 Hello,

 How about improving DWT as part of Google Summer of Code?
 I thing a stable GUI library is very important for D.

 What do you think?


 I think it's a great idea.


 For beginning, you might want to add it here:
 http://prowiki.org/wiki4d/wiki.cgi?GSOC_2012_Ideas


 Do you think we should add an entry specific for DWT or an 
 entry for a GUI-library in general?


In my opinion, an entry for a GUI-library in general, while 
mentioning DWT as the number one option in the comments.
Mar 05 2012