[Pipet Devel] updated model

[J.W. Bizzaro]

Konrad Hinsen wrote:
> No need for Expect; you can simply use a bidirectional pipe. Expect
> becomes necessary only for programs that require interactive input in
> a way that is not compatible with stdio. I could well imagine
> that we won't need Expect at all!

There are four classes of TULIP tools:

Non-core TULIP tools can be of three classes:
    (1) Non-interactive tools
        * Any language
        * Modification may be needed
        * Communication via stdio, pipes, and XML

    (2) Interactive tools - Type 1
        * Written in Python/C
        * Should use GTK/GNOME widget set
        * Communication as Python modules

    (3) Interactive tools - Type 2
        * Any language
        * Modification may be needed
        * Communication via Expect/PyExpect and XML

Core TULIP tools will be of only one class:
    (4) Interactive tools - Type 1
        * Written in Python/C
        * Must use GTK/GNOME widget set
        * Communication as Python modules


I though Expect worked with stdio?  Doesn't it?  Thomas, you've worked with it
quite a bit, right?  Am I wrong?


> If we have the code and are allowed to modify it, then we can just as
> well integratre it into Python properly, without any communications
> overhead. Writing and parsing XML is slow!

"We" is the key.  I don't want to modify every non-core tool myself.  I want
something simple that the non-core tool authors can figure out.  I think we
agree that CORBA is about 10 times more difficult to implement than an I/O
resembling HTML...Can anyone think of something simpler than HTML/XML?

This current discussion is of course about two classes of non-core TULIP tools
mentioned above (1 and 3).  For core TULIP tools, we will do the work
ourselves and do it "properly" with Python.


> Yes, as a worst case. Maybe we should keep the discussion more
> pragmatic and consider specific examples for each case; if we
> can't find an example, we might just as well forget about it...

Forget about what, the whole TULIP project or GUI's with no modifications? ;-)


> Interactive manipulation is the hardest part... Lots of GUI programming...

Do you think we can use parts of the MMTK, and port it to GTK?



Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro                  Phone: 617-552-3905
Boston College                mailto:bizzaro at bc.edu
Department of Chemistry       http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/Bizzaro/
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