Re: VB like RAD

["Tony Taylor (ISD)" <tonyt ptialaska net>]

richardt@rice.edu wrote:
> 
> In message <Pine.LNX.4.10.9908202355560.2254-100000@Screech>
>  lansdoct@screech.cs.alfred.edu writes:
> > Hi,
> >       Has anyone though about having some program (possibly an extended
> > glade) that is a RAD tool like the VB environment?  Something where you
> > place the widgets then double-click on them to input or edit the code
> > which is executed when the widget is actually used (such as when the
> > button just put down is clicked on)?  Possibly even in perl because it has
> > some database stuff and is a weakly typed language?  This way people could
> > write slow, buggy programs just as easily in Linux as in windows.
> 
> Perl?  I like perl as much as the next guy (more, maybe), but python is better
> for generic vb-like programming.  Also, most people I run into think that perl
> is cryptic.  (I suspect they only think that because they haven't learned it,
> but it does have a reputation for being less than readable...  Personally, I
> HATE maintaining really -large- perl projects, although the small and
> midsize ones are fine.)
> 
> A better option would be to design a languageless RAD system.  Each language
> could have a module to provide its source for what the system needs to do.  I
> did some thinking about a similar concept a few months ago.  (Have a scripting
> corba interface with pluggable corba languages ... poof ... For free, you get
> consistent integrated scripting cababilities using any language (or
> combination) inside any app that can export a corba interface)

Gnome-filer was designed this way.  All widgets (I call 'em controls,
since some controls (eventually) will not be standard Gtk+ widgets, but
database objects) are plug-ins, as are the language bindings. 
Currently, the only language binding is Perl, but once that is complete,
and I have some more controls besides just a top-level window and a
button, I'm going to add Guile, Python, maybe C and C++, and any other
scripting language that might be useful.  (Tcl, perhaps.)

I haven't gone as far as making the plug-ins corba objects.  In the case
of the controls, it just doesn't make sense, though I hope to have a
generic CORBA wrapper so I can export controls between computers; but in
the case of languages, it *does* make sense, just as you say.  But,
since I've never embedded a language before, and since I've never
written a CORBA component, I figure I'll take this one step at a time. 
Pluggable CORBA languages can wait for someone else to implement them,
or v2.0, whichever is easiest.  (Insert smiley here.)

At the moment, you can lay out objects in a main window, and attach Perl
code to the "clicked" event.  The other events work as well, but
"clicked" is the only one that can logically get triggered.  There's
hardly anything to see at the moment, but I'm very proud of what *is*
there.

                                        - Tony