Re: Idea: Can we modify Devel::REPL or combine with Perl Object Environment to have programmatic interaction with a gtk2-perl process like in other languages?

[Sergei Steshenko <sergstesh yahoo com>]

--- On Tue, 4/21/09, Mitchell Laks <mlaks post harvard edu> wrote:

> From: Mitchell Laks <mlaks post harvard edu>
> Subject: Re: Idea: Can we modify Devel::REPL or combine with  Perl Object Environment to have programmatic 
> interaction with a gtk2-perl process like in other languages?
> To: gtk-perl-list gnome org
> Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 11:10 PM
> On 22:47 Tue 21 Apr 
>    , Sergei Steshenko wrote:
> > Mitchell, I think you misunderstood my point - it
> wasn't about advocacy.
> > It was about automated code generation vs language
> features and personal
> > preferences WRT the features.
> >
> > So, an automatically generated code for one language
> may look natural for
> > that language and the "same" (up to syntax
> differences) code for another
> > language looks unnatural and unnecessarily hardly
> maintainable.
>
> I see your point, and agree about automatically generated
> code. I am sorry I misunderstood... 
>
> However I am talking about something else entirely.
>  
> I would like to develop my code without having to knock
> down my application 
> and rerun each time I make a change. I will explain below
> why. 
>
> If you can, take a look at Ryans plugin!!! It is exactly
> what I had in mind. His plugin works
> directly on my Debian box.  Also in his POD, he gives
> an example to code
>  the exact steps I wanted to do, such as to add and then
> remove a widget in a running application!!!!!
>
> Moreover, if I can figure out the Stylish emacs setup of
> Jonathan Rockway (see the video link I gave you)
> it will be awesome!
>
>
> Consider this. I am writing a complex gui application to
> display medical images. My code will operate on a stack of
> a 500 - 1000 images.  I use many libraries - PDL POGL
> gtk2-perl and other C++ and java libraries to get at the raw
> data. 
> It takes time to start the application and load the images.
>
>
> Currently, each time I do a change in my opengl code I
> exit
> from a working instance and  need to reload all that
> crap. I would rather just change a callback in a REPL
> and keep working on a live instance.
>
> This is normal behavior in Lisp development (according to
> Lispers). We should have this in perl too! Now we do
> with Stylish and now with this plugin in Gtk2-perl.... I
> need to check to see how it works out.
>
> Look at the Stylish REPL Emacs video! It is cool!
>
> I am very optimistic and excited!
>
> Mitchell

Of course, Perl allows dynamic compilation/binding, i.e. one can add some
new piece of code to a running instance.

Has anyone verified absence of memory leaks doing such things frequently ?

WRT memory leaks I prefer to be on the safe side - in a GUI of mine I do not even destroy/recreate widgets, 
just hide/show them. And the GUI has no
dynamic binding whatsoever.

Again regarding memory leaks - gtk+ folks have a nerve to claim gtk+ has no
memory leaks - even after the fact that in a number of releases they had
memory leaks fixed - this was in their release announcements. So, I wish
you luck - I am an "old" skeptical guy ;-).

Regards,
  Sergei.