RE: extending Prima widget library...

To add my 2 cents:

I think Prima simply is the best GUI for Perl and I always are amazed how
easily I can implement things and do changes to extend interfaces in case of
need.

I was especially exited once I discovered how I could use the VisualBuilder
to create fm-files and load them dynamically via Prima::VBLoad. And being a
Windows guy after this I was even more exited when I figured out how to bind
all this together with ActiveStates "Perl Dev Kit" to create self-running
Windows exe's for people without Perl and Prima installed. It is
unbelievable how fast and modular you can create great looking software this
way.

But indeed until you are at this point the learning curve is *very* steep
and a tutorial would be *very* helpful. Especially a tutorial that explains
how to use the VisualBuilder and what to do to import fm files dynamically
into your Perl app, so that you can even change your GUI independently from
your Perl script. And it would be helpful to know which files you need to
bind independent applications for people who do not have Prima installed.

It took me hours to figure all this out via try-and-error myself. To have
some easy cut-and-past examples indeed could help tremendously to help
beginners:

1. How to use the VB to create/edit a window (cut-and-paste fm file)
2. How to load this window definition file dynamically into your Perl code
(cut-and-past pl file)
3. How to link widgets via the VB to function calls of your Perl module

After you know how things work all is pretty easy, but it takes a long time
to get there. I would do a little cut-and-paste tutorial myself, but I
simply have no time for this now, perhaps later in summer.

All I can say is:
Great work and many thanks for the fantastic tools, Dmitry and Co!
The tech is superb, but indeed some modular Tutorials for beginners would
make it even better :)

Kai Fiebach

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Shangov [mailto:pshangov_at_yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 11:09 AM
To: prima_at_prima.eu.org
Subject: Re: extending Prima widget library...

 --- Dmitry Karasik <dmitry_at_karasik.eu.org> wrote: >

> This question bothers me as well. AFAIU the situation, Prima target
> group
> is already divided between those who stick to perl/Tk and those who
> gave up
> with scripting languages and joined Qt/gtk . I hope the promotion can
> change this, but I alone can't do much. A great app written with
> Prima
> would kindle more intereset to it, let alone boost the diffusion,
> which
> is pitifully small.

I learnt about Prima about an year ago and I think that it is the
coolest and most powerful GUI library perl currently has. However I am
not using it. Recently I started on a new project and I chose Tk again
insted of Prima for a number of reasons:

a) I still have not had much experience with Prima scripting - the
learning curve has always seemed too steep for me because there is
little available cut-and-paste code for me to use. I am the kind of
person who likes to get something working, and then, if I am still
interested, see how it acutally works. It would be extremely useful to
have a series of tutorials with cut-and-paste code that takes you from
"hello world" through buttons and menus and tree widgets to writing
themes and extending prima. I *know* there are some introductions to
Prima out there but they are not sufficient. Mind you, I am talking
about tutorials, not the documentation, which is IMO excellent. In
comparison, Tk has a great book, a large number of articles about it
(in TPJ, on perl.com, in what used to be the Perl Month), it has a
mailing list where you can find the answere to most of you questions
without even bothering to ask, and there is lots of Tk code on CPAN,
not to mention the web.

b) L&F of widgets. Some Prima widgets can look really ugly. Now that
Prima has themes support, things I believe would br easier to improve.
To things for me need urgent attention: radio/checkboxes and tabs. Also
it would be great if there was an option to use system dialogs for file
open/save, printing etc. instad of Prima's default ones. Tk is not
fantastic-looking either, but it still easier to get it to look like
you system (I am working under Windows).

c) As far as widget functionality is concerned, the only things I
remember having missed in Prima is the lack of undo/redo in a text
widget. I needed that badly for the work I had to do so I went with Tk.

Also, to gain popularity, Prima needs an article on perl.com:)

This said, I beleve Prima is really a toolkit with great potential. I
have been amazed at the speed with which the authors have produced new
modules at the request of users - e.g. the spreadsheet widger,
PDL::PrimaImage or the introduction of the Tk-style packer. I still
plan to find some time to learn Prima well enough to statr to feel
confident with it.

In the meanhwile, I am ready to pay a designer to do some work on the
Prima website. Please contact me if you are interested.

Regards,

Petar

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Received on Fri 09 Jan 2004 - 12:20:26 CET