Re: GUI design

[Daniel J Sebald]

On 03/23/2012 04:55 PM, Ben Abbott wrote:
> On Mar 23, 2012, at 3:02 PM, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>
> > On 03/23/2012 01:20 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> >
> > > 2012/3/23 Daniel J Sebald<address@hidden>:
> > >
> > > > One question is whether people are more productive using a GUI
> > > > versus a command line and an editor like gvim or whatever.
> > >
> > > This is irrelevant.
> >
> > No it's not.  Being productive is important.
>
> There are many novice users who believe the GUI makes them more productive, and 
> many experienced users who think the command line is more productive for them.
>
> Since, no one is forced to use the GUI, I don't see how adding a GUI to octave 
> is relevant to those who don't plan to use it.

I'm not trying to dissuade people from creating a GUI for Octave.  (I am 
making a case though, even if you are a new user, to consider focusing 
on the command line because you might find it more efficient.)  I'm 
saying it is a lot of work for maintainers and some people might prefer 
to focus on other things in the core code.  My personal preference is 
that if the maintainer list is opened up to maintaining GUI code, it 
should at least bring something to the table.  (Maybe Octave Developers 
list is a better forum for GUI development.)

The other part about the initial inquiry was replicating GUI Octave, and 
I'm asking why GUI Octave?  Will all the new users who are attracted to 
a GUI for Octave be satisfied with what looks to be a skimpy interface? 
 Is there debugging?  Is there GUI building?  Is there a way to modify, 
WYSIWYG-style, the plots?

I just saw John Chain's post under "Re: Proposal for GSoC. 
(address@hidden)" which is similar to what I'm saying.

Dan