| Object widget? [message #80588] |
Fri, 22 June 2012 15:38  |
Russell Ryan
Messages: 122
Registered: May 2012
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Senior Member |
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Hi gang, I have a conceptual question. I've been developing a GUI to do some processing and modeling of astronomical images for a while now, which has gotten too "spaghettified" for my taste and so it's time for an overhaul. Since I'm about to rewrite ~10,000 lines of code to clean up all sorts of "features", I wanted to know what the virtues of writing this code as an object?
Thanks!
Russell
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| Re: Object widget? [message #80694 is a reply to message #80588] |
Mon, 25 June 2012 17:29  |
Russell Ryan
Messages: 122
Registered: May 2012
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Senior Member |
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On Monday, June 25, 2012 2:42:55 PM UTC-4, Mike Galloy wrote:
> On 6/25/12 11:49 AM, rryan@stsci.edu wrote:
>> I am very familiar with the Fanning's library and website. But I was hoping someone could describe the virtues of the OOP for widgets/GUIs. I'm rewriting the code anyway, and so thought to do it in OOP --- provided the reasons are better than simple intellectual curiosity.
>
> Object-widgets have all the advantages of objects in general. In
> particular, encapsulation and a documented interface are important
> features. With a standard widget program, you basically have to give
> away your tlb widget identifier for another routine to interact with
> you. At which point, the interacting program can do anything they want
> to you. But an object-widget can publish an interface of actions it can
> take, properties that can be examined, etc. This makes working with
> object-widgets much easier and the code that interacts with them much
> easier to maintain.
>
> Mike
> --
> Michael Galloy
> www.michaelgalloy.com
> Modern IDL: A Guide to IDL Programming (http://modernidl.idldev.com)
> Research Mathematician
> Tech-X Corporation
Mike, David,
Thank you, that was what I was looking for. In fact, I think you two may have read my mind. The "main" GUI interacts with 4-6 "subGUIs" which do some other processing and manipulations. And, getting the data to pass back and forth between all the GUIs efficiently was a hassle. Finally, as the code progressed and new bits were added, tweaked, or removed, maintaining the connectivity was becoming a nightmare....
Sounds like the objects are the way to go, but I'm not too comfortable with developing my own. All the graphics handling is done with the object-graphics, so I'm familiar with the basics.
Thanks again fellas!
R
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| Re: Object widget? [message #80696 is a reply to message #80588] |
Mon, 25 June 2012 11:42 |
Michael Galloy
Messages: 1114
Registered: April 2006
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Senior Member |
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On 6/25/12 11:49 AM, rryan@stsci.edu wrote:
> I am very familiar with the Fanning's library and website. But I was hoping someone could describe the virtues of the OOP for widgets/GUIs. I'm rewriting the code anyway, and so thought to do it in OOP --- provided the reasons are better than simple intellectual curiosity.
Object-widgets have all the advantages of objects in general. In
particular, encapsulation and a documented interface are important
features. With a standard widget program, you basically have to give
away your tlb widget identifier for another routine to interact with
you. At which point, the interacting program can do anything they want
to you. But an object-widget can publish an interface of actions it can
take, properties that can be examined, etc. This makes working with
object-widgets much easier and the code that interacts with them much
easier to maintain.
Mike
--
Michael Galloy
www.michaelgalloy.com
Modern IDL: A Guide to IDL Programming (http://modernidl.idldev.com)
Research Mathematician
Tech-X Corporation
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| Re: Object widget? [message #80697 is a reply to message #80588] |
Mon, 25 June 2012 10:58 |
David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001
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Senior Member |
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rryan@stsci.edu writes:
> I am very familiar with the Fanning's library and
> website. But I was hoping someone could describe the
> virtues of the OOP for widgets/GUIs. I'm rewriting the
> code anyway, and so thought to do it in OOP --- provided
> the reasons are better than simple intellectual curiosity.
In a word, objects are clever and widgets are dumb.
Widgets have an extremely basic interface (SET_VALUE
and GET_VALUE). Object widgets can be interacted with
in any number of clever and creative ways. Plus, an
added bonus, since they are so clever, they become
idea-generating machines. The biggest problem you
have with object-widgets is resisting the temptation
to make them TOO clever! You can do too many things
with them and you will find that you have to resist
tinkering with them and just get the basic job done
and move on. Otherwise, you will end up a geek
instead of a scientist.
Cheers,
David
--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.idlcoyote.com/
Sepore ma de ni thui. ("Perhaps thou speakest truth.")
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