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Re: GUI vs. CLI


From: Keith Goodman
Subject: Re: GUI vs. CLI
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 20:38:38 -0800

On 3/15/06, Ron Crummett <address@hidden> wrote:
> I'm sorry, I've been out of town for a couple of days and missed a lot
> of the GUI vs. CLI discussion, so if I say anything irrelevant and old I
> apologize.
>
> My main question is what users mean when they say GUI?  It seems to me
> like most everything done in either Matlab or Octave is done by command
> line.  I like the window docking in Matlab - I like to set up Matlab so
> that I have a panel featuring my command window, a panel with my editor,
> and a panel for plots.  That way I don't have to go searching around
> looking for any plots after I run a function.  But it's not too hard to
> set up Octave so that the plot is in a small enough window that it
> doesn't cover the command window, and my experience is that the command
> window is inactive once you start editing a function (if I'm wrong on
> this I'd love to know - when I type 'edit xxxx' then I can't do anything
> in my command window until I close out of emacs).
>
> This doesn't seem like a GUI to me, though.  Do people just want a print
> button on plots?  Sure it would be nice but it's not too tough to use
> the print command.  If I can do it, anyone can.  Anyway, my two cents...

>From recent threads, many on the Octave list seem to think that the
Matlab GUI is just two 400x400 pixel print and edit buttons.

The Matlab GUI,  or IDE, has many useful features:

Debugging. Click on a line to set a break point. Watch the arrow move
when you step through your code. Move anywhere in the function stack
and the m-file will open with an arrow next to the appropriate line.
Mouse over variables to see size and/or values. When you debug with
the Matlab GUI you feel like you are interacting directly with the
code.

Set your path.

Evaluate highlighted code.

Highlight a function name in your code. Right-click to open that
function in the tabbed editor.

Auto indent highlighted code

Comment out a block of highlighted code.

These are all time savers. The absence of these features in Octave
shouldn't be a deal breaker---it isn't for me. But for many it is.

Improvements to Octave's CLI will close the gap. Since I started using
Octave over a year ago, I have seen the UI gap narrow.

Eventually I bet Octave will have a well-designed, documented, and
stable API for IDE developers. Then Octave can make a 500x500 pixel
print button!



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