[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Looking for a generic drag and drop gui for custom commands



Hello David,

Am Tue, 8 Sep 2020 02:57:30 -0700
schrieb David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>:

> There are a great many ways to implement graphical user interface 
> applications.  Drag-and-drop support implies good integration with the 
> window manager or desktop environment.  One option is to use a 
> programming language and a GUI library to build a script or executable 
> (e.g. Tcl/Tk, C/GTK).

That's what I'm thinking about.

I'll probably go with the QT GUI Framework with either C++ or Python as
programming language.


> You should define some criteria to narrow the choices.  This is a Debian 
> mailing list, so I assume you want to build and run apps on Debian using 
> tools packaged on Debian (?).

Yes, mostly. But if there's some nice command line utility that doesn't
ship with Debian (such as stereo tool audio processor), I'll use that as
well. BTW I'm doing a lot of audio / video editing at the moment.


> Do you want to develop and/or deploy on other platforms?

I was primarily aiming at Linux, but you made me realize it would be
useful to have the same applications on other system, e. g. Windows
(which I'm using occasionally). I'll develop on Linux (Debian).


> Will the apps be single-user or multi-user (including 
> yourself on multiple devices)?

Single User. Did you get the idea of what I want to do?
Did you just copy/paste an app development questionaire? ;-)
I'll answer the rest of your questions anyway ...


> Will the app include accessibility  features?  Privacy?  Security?

No.
It'll be just one window that accepts files and folders to drag onto.
The only goal (for now) of this "app" is to execute a single command.


> What license(s) will apply to the app? 

I don't care. Maybe MIT or Public domain.


> Will you use any external development infrastructure (e.g SourceForge, 
> GitHub). 

I'm not planning to do that, but if a lot of people find my command-gui
useful, I might do that. Are you interested? ;-)


> Tell us about your programming knowledge and skills.

I've done similar, more complicated Projects in the past.
Some experience with C/C++, Python, Kivy, wxWidgets, perl, php, etc.


> How much time and money do you want to put into developing the first app?

As little as possible. That's why I asked if there's a similar app
available already. There are many beautiful and useful pieces of software
out in the world. The main reason to ask here on the list is that I
assume people know more about those tools than I do.


> What about apps after that (and how many)?  Are the apps a hobby, or do you 
> want to leverage this into a programmer job and/or commercial venture? 
> And, whatever else comes to mind.

The program is meant to be used by myself – to simplify my life /
workflow. So you could call it a hobby. And I haven't done programming
for a couple of months, which I would like to do now. And I would enjoy to
learn something new (QT in this case).

I've just installed the QT Designer this morning, clicked around for a
couple of minutes and managed to get the window displayed with python
(PyQT / Pyside2). The next step will be to get the drop functionality
working. After that, I will put some predefined command statements in the
list of selectable tasks. Then I'll go for the argument replacement and
with that in place, I have a working tool. Everything else will be "nice
to have". But I'll soon figure out it's annoying to only have predefined
commands, so I will add some configuration file whicht might be editable
from the gui.

That's my plan for now.

Thanks for your support,
Christoph


Reply to: