Re: RFC : Proposal for new simple GTK2-based DIA API [was Re: Dia Python]

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003, James Michael DuPont wrote:
> --- Hans Breuer <Hans Breuer org> wrote:
>
> > > If there's also a perl plugin coming up, we'll
> > > need to encapsulate these things differently, so they behave the
> > same
> > > between main program and plugins.
> > There is nothing which can be done in Perl which can not be done
> > in Python but readable. Not to start language wars but do we
> > really need another language binding if we lack resources to 
> > maintain one?
>
> yes we lack resources, but not will power. 
>
> > So many people with bright ideas, so many vapor ware ...
>
> Yes hans, almost all of my ideas about DIA are vapor right now.
>
> This is directly related to the work I have been putting into the gcc
> interface. We have just released a version for testing 
> http://freshmeat.net/projects/introspector/
>
> The issue of bindings is difficult, but in the end after some
> discussion, I have come up with the following idea, please comment.
>
> 1. OAF/Bonobo : this is a fat API that supports costs more than we need
> for scripting and interprocess communication.
>
> 2. GObject2 / GTK : this is the interface we need to script, and
> we can base those scripting interfaces on a standard. For example the
> GTK2 has a set of perl bindings in the works
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk2-perl/
>
> I think that the best way forward is to define a new API for dia,
> and then start factoring the code from the app back underneath it.
>
> Here are the classes that i would like to see :
>
> 1. application
> 2. diagram
> 3. element
> 4. connection
> [...]
> what do you think?

I think you should look a little more at the current Dia structure.  While
it bears some resemblance to what you describe above, it's different enough
that it would be an unnecessary pain to change it.  I really don't see the
need to change the Dia API like that.

I have no idea what the redland/raptor api is.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?