Building a Python app with Mozilla

[sjdevnull@yahoo.com]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

greg wrote:

sjdevnull@yahoo .com wrote:
>

wxWidgets will give you native looking apps on both Linux and Windows

>
Well, maybe. There's more to getting a native feel than
just using the right widgets. I once saw a Qt-based app on
MacOSX that had tiny little buttons that were too small
for the text they contained -- Aqua buttons just don't
scale down like that. :-(

wxWidgets isn't Qt-related. wx wraps the Aqua widgets on MacOS, the
gtk widgets on Linux, and the Windows widgets on Windows. So you're
actually using the real platform-specific widgets, and if you follow
the style guidelines you'll get pretty native-looking apps (including
things like the menubar showing up in the app on Linux/Windows but
using the main menubar on Mac).

Last I looked (3.1-ish), Qt didn't use the Aqua widgets but rather
tried to write their own widgets that looked (kinda) like the MacOS
widgets. I hear that may have changed in more recent versions, but I
no longer have a Mac. They did do the menubar correctly even at that
time, though.

[greg]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

sjdevnull@yahoo .com wrote:

Last I looked (3.1-ish), Qt didn't use the Aqua widgets but rather
tried to write their own widgets that looked (kinda) like the MacOS
widgets.

That might be so, but even if it had used real Aqua widgets,
the same problem would have occurred.

My point was that using native widgets is not in itself
enough to ensure a native experience. There are conventions
about *how* the widgets are used, and other things about
the behaviour that don't relate to widgets at all.

Native widgets are certainly a better thing to start
from, though.

--
Greg

[Damjan]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

Last I looked (3.1-ish), Qt didn't use the Aqua widgets

Qt is now up to 4.3 and they use native Aqua

--
damjan

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

Thorsten Kampe a écrit :

Hi,
>
I've already sent this to the Komodo mailing list (which seemed to me
the more appropriate place) but unfortunately I got no response.
>
I'd like to build a Python GUI app. Neither Tkinter nor Wxpython nor
PyQT are actually what I want (because the lack of GUI builders and
they don't really look good on Windows and Linux).

Err... Actually, there are GUI builders for wxWidget (the C++ lib behind
wxPython). And since wxWidgets relies on the platform's GUI libs (native
on Windows, GTK or Metal on unices), I don't get the "don't look good"
point ?

[happybrowndog]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

Is that why Komodo is so damned slow????


Brian Quinlan wrote:

Kevin Walzer wrote:

>Komodo is not a Python application. It is a Mozilla application that
>supports Python development. Komodo is more akin to Thunderbird and
>Firefox than anything else; it uses the XUL framework for rendering
>widgets, if I'm not mistaken. If you want to build an application like
>Komodo, get a book on developing with the Mozilla framework (XUL, XPCOM,
>and all that) and look at that. Python has little to do with that.

>
Most application logic in Komodo is implemented in Python, using the
PyXPCOM bindings. The UI is implemented using XUL and JavaScript. The
editor is Scintilla (C++).
>
../Komodo Edit.app/Contents/MacOS % find . -name "*.py" | xargs wc
...
...
126392 456858 4949602 total
>
This doesn't include the python code in the Python libraries themselves.
>
Cheers,
Brian
>
>

[Trent Mick]

Re: Building a Python app with Mozilla

Brian Quinlan wrote:

>Most application logic in Komodo is implemented in Python, using the
>PyXPCOM bindings. The UI is implemented using XUL and JavaScript. The
>editor is Scintilla (C++).
>>
>../Komodo Edit.app/Contents/MacOS % find . -name "*.py" | xargs wc
>...
>...
>126392 456858 4949602 total
>>
>This doesn't include the python code in the Python libraries themselves.

An interesting breakdown here:

http://www.ohloh.net/projects/10861/analyses/latest

happybrowndog wrote:

Is that why Komodo is so damned slow????

Probably not, no. Pinpointing the reasons for slowness is often a lot
more complicated. Particular slow points in any app/module -- especially
pathologically slow things -- are more often algoritmic than a function
of the language used. Komodo's use of Python is perhaps partially
responsible for a slower startup time than might otherwise be possible
-- but otherwise my experience in Komodo perf work has been algorithmic
issues. Also, if Komodo hadn't been using Python for application logic
since day one we probably wouldn't be much further than Notepad right
now. :)

Cheers,
Trent (komodo developer)

--
Trent Mick
trentm at activestate.com