| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19504] |
Tue, 21 March 2000 00:00 |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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David Fanning (davidf@dfanning.com) writes:
> Who wrote that book anyway!? :-(
I've now been informed by reliable sources who deal with
this sort of thing that Coyote is known to channel through
idiot savants.
Cheers,
David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
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| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19505 is a reply to message #19504] |
Tue, 21 March 2000 00:00  |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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Ben Tupper (tupper@seadas.bigelow.org) writes:
> P.S. Neither Ronn nor David have recompensed me for the above, but any
> contributions to the Ben-Tupper-Really-Wants-An-Alden-Ocean-Rowing-
> Shell-Fund are welcome.
Depending, of course, on the onslaught of increased book
orders, perhaps you should be thinking about a one-oar
dinghy. :-)
My printer tells me I am nearly out of covers for the
book. (Can that be possible!? I printed so many
my wife almost decided she had had enough of me and my
grandiose ideas when the bill arrived.) So I thought
as long as I was printing a new cover I'd splash a
"Brand New 2nd Edition" sticker on it and see if I
couldn't goose sales a bit.
Of course, feeling guilty about false advertising,
I thought I should probably read through the damn
thing once (you would understand if *you* had written
a book) and see if there was anything that really needed
updating.
The truth is, I learned two new things before I had
even gotten out of the first chapter. Who wrote that
book anyway!? :-(
Cheers,
David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
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| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19506 is a reply to message #19504] |
Tue, 21 March 2000 00:00 |
Ben Tupper
Messages: 186
Registered: August 1999
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Senior Member |
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rappold@zedat.fu-berlin.de wrote:
> David Fanning schrieb:
>>
>> Jae-Seung Kim (jkim03@maxwell.ee.washington.edu) writes:
>>
>>> Is there a GUI Builder for Unix environment?
>>
>> Yes, several of us. And your GUIs are guaranteed to
>> be a hell of a lot better than anything IDL could
>> come up with. :-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> David
>>
>> P.S. Let's just say that for a $75 investment and
>> about 5 hours of your time even YOU could be writing
>> GUIs that would beat whatever IDL could come up
>> with in a GUI builder hands-down. Absolutely guaranteed. :-)
>>
> I'm not into GUI's can you be a bit more explicite?
>
>
Hello,
I'm not sure that David's softsell tongue-in-cheek response is what you
were looking for. GUI is an acronym for Graphical User Interface; GUIs
tend to be a collection of buttons, slidebars, droplists, etc. (called
widgets) that software users can manipulate. The GUI builder mentioned
above is an gizmo for building a GUI inteface by dragging-and-dropping
the buttons and slidebars into position. Not all versions of IDL come
with the GUI builder. As you, the programmer, drag and drop the
components you want to include the interface, the GUIBuilder
automatically generates the coding needed to respond to user actions
(such as pressing a button with a mouse click.) GUIBuilders are common
with database packages like ACCESS and Visual DBASE. GUI interfaces
make dynamic data analysis and visualization easy. Objects really shine
when you build GUIs around them.
IDL's GUIBuilder places all of the coding in a single event loop, events
being actions that the user intiates (like pushing a button.) This
put-everything-in-one-handler runs counter to the idea of writing code
in small reusable bits; I find the all-encompassing coding generated by
IDL's GUIBuilder unwieldy. David espouses a different approach, where
the programmer builds the GUI with smaller (or at least less unwieldy)
bits of code. His style is easier to create and maintain than the
GUIBuilder approach.
Unfortunately, the IDL references are not the place to learn about
GUI/Widget programming. It's really too bad, I think they are missing
a nice opportunity. Fortunately, David has written a wonderful book on
IDL programming that can give you an excellent start. I highly
recommend it.
You might also check out Ronn Kling's book that address widget
programming with a different slant. I can't say as much about his book
because I just got it. I like what I see so far. Ronn also addresses
objects from the ground up.
I hope that gives you the info you asked for.
Ben
P.S. Neither Ronn nor David have recompensed me for the above, but any
contributions to the
Ben-Tupper-Really-Wants-An-Alden-Ocean-Rowing-Shell-Fund are welcome.
--
Ben Tupper
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science
tupper@seadas.bigelow.org
pemaquidriver@tidewater.net
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| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19511 is a reply to message #19504] |
Tue, 21 March 2000 00:00 |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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Gerhard Rappold (rappold@zedat.fu-berlin.de) writes:
>> P.S. Let's just say that for a $75 investment and
>> about 5 hours of your time even YOU could be writing
>> GUIs that would beat whatever IDL could come up
>> with in a GUI builder hands-down. Absolutely guaranteed. :-)
>>
> I'm not into GUI's can you be a bit more explicite?
On a non-commercial newsgroup!? No. I already push
my luck almost to the breaking point. :-)
Cheers,
David
P.S. Did I mention I've written an IDL book?
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
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| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19512 is a reply to message #19504] |
Tue, 21 March 2000 00:00 |
Gerhard D. Rappold
Messages: 10
Registered: March 1998
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Junior Member |
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David Fanning schrieb:
>
> Jae-Seung Kim (jkim03@maxwell.ee.washington.edu) writes:
>
>> Is there a GUI Builder for Unix environment?
>
> Yes, several of us. And your GUIs are guaranteed to
> be a hell of a lot better than anything IDL could
> come up with. :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> P.S. Let's just say that for a $75 investment and
> about 5 hours of your time even YOU could be writing
> GUIs that would beat whatever IDL could come up
> with in a GUI builder hands-down. Absolutely guaranteed. :-)
>
I'm not into GUI's can you be a bit more explicite?
Gerhard
--
########################################################
Gerhard D. Rappold B.E.R.G.
Institute for Geo-Sciences Berlin
Free University of Berlin Environmental
Malteserstr. 74-100 Research
D-12249 Berlin Group
e-mail: rappold@zedat.fu-berlin.de
########################################################
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| Re: GUI Builder for Unix [message #19519 is a reply to message #19504] |
Mon, 20 March 2000 00:00 |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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Jae-Seung Kim (jkim03@maxwell.ee.washington.edu) writes:
> Is there a GUI Builder for Unix environment?
Yes, several of us. And your GUIs are guaranteed to
be a hell of a lot better than anything IDL could
come up with. :-)
Cheers,
David
P.S. Let's just say that for a $75 investment and
about 5 hours of your time even YOU could be writing
GUIs that would beat whatever IDL could come up
with in a GUI builder hands-down. Absolutely guaranteed. :-)
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155
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