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Re: object widgets [message #42883 is a reply to message #17810] Wed, 02 March 2005 23:47 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
David Fanning is currently offline  David Fanning
Messages: 11724
Registered: August 2001
Senior Member
Mark Schellens writes:

> I had already a look at it, and it seems to be exactly what I want but
> is at least some raw documentation available? Or the sourcecode?

The code itself is extensively documented and mostly accurate.
I take great pains to keep it up-to-date as much as I can.
In fact, objects can document themselves. What is not available
is a User's Guide, with the big picture of how these 80 plus
objects can be used with one another. Programmers who use
the library currently don't seem to need much more than what
is already there, but I am about to teach the library to
two people who have never programmed in IDL before. We will
see how much hand-holding they are going to need. :-)

I think if you are comfortable with objects generally, I can
explain in a couple of hours how the whole thing works. There
are some tricks, ways of doing things, that are important, but
these are almost all illustrated in the example program that
comes with the library. Our mantra while building the library
was "simple and easy". "Even scientists should be able to
use it," we kept telling ourselves. You don't have to know
anything at all about object graphics to use the library
unless you really, really want to. But 95% of what we build,
we build with good ol' direct graphics.

Like anything else, you have to build about three programs
with the library and then pretty much everything is trivial.
It helps to have some knowledge of widget programming, generally,
but working with widgets is greatly simplified. Pretty much
everything you want to do with a widget occurs with GetProperty
and SetProperty methods. Communication between objects is
simple and acts very much like widget event handling.

We are currently having some issues getting the code
to work perfectly on all platforms. We push pretty
hard on some things, and we have the usual cross-platform
headaches that come with any but the simplest programs.
(If you have ever looked at any of the code supplied
with IDL, you know we are not the only ones running into
these kinds of problems.)

Around here the source code is known as Fanning's Folly
because it was suppose to be a Gold Mine and it has
turned into something of an albatross. The bottom line
is this: we took two years to build the library, we
*know* we can build applications with it, so we presume
it might have some commercial value for someone other
than us. It's a quixotic point of view, but we are
sticking with it, at least for now. So, yes, you can
see the source code, but it will probably cost you. :-)

> De-facto standard meant something almost everbody here uses.

Around here is means whatever happens to be at hand and
*almost* works. :-)

Cheers,

David

--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting, Inc.
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/

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