Best GUI for small-scale accounting app?

[JanC]

Re: Best GUI for small-scale accounting app?

Ed Leafe schreef:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> I think the field of GUI frameworks / tools for Python is fragmented
>> because it's fragmented outside of Python too...[/color]
>
> I think that the reason things are fragmented in this field is that
> none of the tools are simple enough to learn.[/color]

Even on Windows, where several well-known and/or easy to use "Rapid GUI &
Database Development Tools" exist (Delphi, VB, Access, Visual FoxPro,
FileMaker, ...), the framework field is fragmented: Microsoft's Win32, MFC
& WTL, Borland's VCL & CLX, wxWidgets, System.Windows. Forms, several Java
frameworks, ...

But even then, if DaBo ever becomes as easy to use as Delphi/VB for this
type of applications, while remaining cross-platform, that might easily
double the number of Python developers. ;-)


--
JanC

"Be strict when sending and tolerant when receiving."
RFC 1958 - Architectural Principles of the Internet - section 3.9

[Ed Leafe]

Re: Best GUI for small-scale accounting app?

On Dec 28, 2004, at 5:52 PM, JanC wrote:
[color=blue]
> But even then, if DaBo ever becomes as easy to use as Delphi/VB for
> this
> type of applications, while remaining cross-platform, that might easily
> double the number of Python developers. ;-)[/color]

Well, there are at least a half-million Visual FoxPro developers who
have been hung out to dry by Microsoft, most of whom would love to
leave the land of proprietary closed solutions for a bit of fresh air.
That's where Paul and I came from, and that was our initial motivation
for deciding to develop Dabo - there wasn't a Python tool out there
that could even begin to approach what we were used to with VFP. If we
could get Dabo to the point where someone familiar with VFP or even VB
could become productive in a short time, well, I'm certain that there
will be lots of new blood in these parts. Our work is being followed
very closely by those communities.

___/
/
__/
/
____/
Ed Leafe

http://leafe.com/

http://dabodev.com/

[Luke Skywalker]

Re: Best GUI for small-scale accounting app?

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:06:57 -0500, Ed Leafe <ed@leafe.com > wrote:[color=blue]
>That's where Paul and I came from, and that was our initial motivation
>for deciding to develop Dabo - there wasn't a Python tool out there
>that could even begin to approach what we were used to with VFP.[/color]

Interesting discussion. I haven't looked at Dabo yet, but the issues
that must be solved before Python is a valid alternative to
proprietary solutions like Delphi or VB are:

- speed where it matters (ie. no 20s load time)

- good RAD (IDE and GUI designer, on par with Delphi or VB)

- high-quality, varied widgets

- good DB connectors

- reasonable footprint (ie. no 20MB program just for a small
appplication; have mercy on users stuck with P3 and dial-up)

- ease of deployment and maintenance (ie. how easy is it for an
application to launch some updated that will fetch updates from the
web)

If Dabo can do all this, it could be a great solution to all those
people Delphi/VFP/VB users whether to go .Net.

Luke.

[Ed Leafe]

Re: Best GUI for small-scale accounting app?

On Dec 28, 2004, at 9:04 PM, Luke Skywalker wrote:
[color=blue]
> Interesting discussion. I haven't looked at Dabo yet, but the issues
> that must be solved before Python is a valid alternative to
> proprietary solutions like Delphi or VB are:
>
> - speed where it matters (ie. no 20s load time)[/color]

Load what? The app, or the data? Users don't care how long the app
takes to start up, since they usually run it all day long. Data
response is a whole 'nother matter, and Dabo is extremely fast in that
regard. After all, a data set is nothing more than lists of lists, and
Python is wicked fast with list handling.
[color=blue]
> - good RAD (IDE and GUI designer, on par with Delphi or VB)[/color]

Still in its infancy in Dabo. Would be nice to have a team working on
it, cos there's only so much a single developer who also has a life can
do.
[color=blue]
> - high-quality, varied widgets[/color]

One of the main reason we picked wxPython as our initial toolkit.
Nearly everything we could want is in there, and they look good on all
platforms.
[color=blue]
> - good DB connectors[/color]

That's not something we control. Dabo is designed to use existing
dbapi-compliant connectors, such as MySQLdb. We currently support
MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Firebird. If anyone has a need to link to
another db, the script to do it is pretty well abstracted.
[color=blue]
> - reasonable footprint (ie. no 20MB program just for a small
> appplication; have mercy on users stuck with P3 and dial-up)[/color]

Don't know where we'll come in in this regard. Most database apps
require some sort of runtime engine, and we'll be no different.
[color=blue]
> - ease of deployment and maintenance (ie. how easy is it for an
> application to launch some updated that will fetch updates from the
> web)[/color]

That seems to me more in the domain of apps created with Dabo, not
Dabo itself. Python already has everything you need to do this, but you
need to create the appropriate scripts for your server and your app.
[color=blue]
> If Dabo can do all this, it could be a great solution to all those[/color]

Of course, we're still pretty early in development; we have 0.3
scheduled to be released in the first week of January. But we do have
our sights set pretty high.

___/
/
__/
/
____/
Ed Leafe

http://leafe.com/

http://dabodev.com/