Re: GUI work (was: Graphical help browser)

[John Swensen]

On Nov 27, 2008, at 2:07 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:

> 2008/11/27 John Swensen <address@hidden>:
> > No patches for Octave are necessary.  The octave_server class is  
> > included in
> > the OctaveDE sources and a function from the octave_server class is
> > registered for the readline idle event loop.  So it pulls data from  
> > Octave
> > when Octave is idle.
>
> But a more intrusive modification in Octave will be necessary if we
> are to properly implement debugging and incorporate it into an editor,
> correct?
>
> Also, what do you think of a worksheet interface instead of a command
> line? We can do better than copy the mostly useless Matlab GUI, right?
> (It's clearly mostly useless, or else we would have tried making an
> imitation GUI much earlier.)
>
> I'll check out your code and try to understand how you're binding to  
> Octave.
>
> - Jordi G. H.

There is no need to make any more changes to Octave to properly  
implement debugging in an editor.  The octave_server class also  
handles this debug interaction.  The IDE/editor can place a message in  
the server that specifies the desired breakpoint function and  
location, the breakpoint will be set in Octave during the next  
iteration of the readline idle event loop, then a message will be  
placed back in the octave_server indicating success or failure and the  
function and line at which the breakpoint was set (e.g. these may not  
be the same in the case that a user specified a blank line and the  
subsequent line is used for the breakpoint).

As for the worksheet interface, I am assuming you mean something like  
Mathematica or Maple where you can input a bunch of stuff, change some  
value in the middle, then re-evaluate the entire worksheet?  I don't  
think this is much different that simply having a script.  You will  
have to explain what you mean by a worksheet interface for me to  
comment much more than that.  My intent has always been to make an  
imitation IDE to make it easier on new users.

John