Re: GUI [was: Re: Possible (summer of code) projects for Octave)

[Søren Hauberg]

tor, 06 01 2011 kl. 09:43 -0600, skrev Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso:
> On 6 January 2011 09:37, Michael Goffioul <address@hidden> wrote:
> > That's actually the point. I see more benefit to use a terminal widget
> > in a GUI, so you can get full readline support without any effort
> > (completion, history, keyboard shortcuts...), you don't have to
> > re-invent the wheel...
> 
> Maybe we don't want this wheel. One of the reasons I find the Matlab
> "GUI" so useless is that it's just a terminal with different fonts and
> colours. People talk about how great it is to have a window always
> open with the variables defined, but 95% of the time I don't care how
> much memory I'm using, and when I do, I can type whos to find out.
> People like the integrated and debugger editor as well, but all I
> remember from using it back then was "it's not Emacs".
> 
> My point is that we should take this opportunity to create an actual
> different interface, not wrap a terminal with "file edit help". Cantor
> is working on a worksheet interface for Octave, although I haven't
> kept up with their development. It's a worthwhile idea, though.

I tend to agree here (many new users would, however, still love to get a
fancy terminal interface). Sometime ago I played with creating an
interface that ran in the browser. This actually worked quite well
except incomplete lines of code could not be entered. Yes, it is more
work to create this type of interfaces, but they also bring values to us
old farts who are just fine with the terminal :-)

Søren