Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] EVO status...was: (open-source like hardware)
From: Paul Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Wed Jan 16 2002 - 00:27:20 EET
>* Paul Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net) wrote:
>> >I would like to code up a proto of the interface though. I was
>> >planning on trying to do it with python and something like wxPython.
>> >Mostly because Python is my new favorite language and I need a good
>> >graphics project to work on.
>>
>> any chance you'd consider using pyGTK and python?
>
>Why do you recommend this in favor of wxPython, when wxPython buys you
>two extra platforms for free (and an easier, better documented API)?
because wxWindows is restricted to being the lowest common denominator
of the toolkits it wraps. i also don't agree that the API is better
documented. there are 2 excellent books on GTK+ programming (both
online), and an almost complete API reference manual online.
there are things i have wanted to do in ardour that wxWindows would
make exceedingly painful because it involves deep messing around with
the GUI internals, something wxWindows cannot allow (since it has no
single set of "internals"). a simple example: when you click on a
record enable button, it cannot turn "on" directly from the "click"
handler/callback/whatever. with an MVC (Model-View-Controller)
programming model, the click is simply a request made using the button
as a controller. when the state of the model changes (i.e. a track is
actually record enabled), the button is used as a view, and its state
is changed to represent this. now, in GTK+, its fairly easily to
subvert the usual handling of button clicks and so forth. but the
alternative to this is to make every widget with this kind of
behaviour (i.e. most of them in an MVC system) into a generic "drawing
area" where you either dump a pixmap or draw some text and lines and
stuff. this means that you are basically back to Xlib and don't
actually have a toolkit working very hard at all to make your life
easier. i don't believe you could possibly carry out this subversion
with wxWindows in a portable fashion. i may be wrong.
finally, i'm not sure what the 2 extra platforms are. MacOS is the
only significant one I can think of. GTK+ for win32 seems to exist and
be pretty effective. GTK+ also provides support, like Qt, for direct
framebuffer systems, making it effective in embedded systems that do
not run X Window, which wxWindow does not do correctly, i am told.
--p
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