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"THEY" want a GUI - any suggestions? 4

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sloppyhack

Technical User
Apr 17, 2001
111
US
My company is into data management services. Enhancing data, cleaning data, reporting, etc. We handle LOTS of text, use tons of RexExs with lots of database interaction and Perl has served me/us very well. I have a new boss now who is not technically savy and wants me to put a GUI on all of the tools I've created and potentially make them web-based at some point. To him..command-line = difficult to use. I realize I could create GUIs with Perl/Tk, but is there an easier way. Is it possible to use a .NET GUI for the front end, and have Perl do all of the processing. My boss is trying to push me to use .NET for everything but I'm fighting it. Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Sloppyhack
 
This are Perl

Win32::GUI is what i use

Tk is another very very good

There is a visual way with Gui-Loft

maybe there are others but i dont think so.

so you have to choose one of them, but be aware, it is a bit hard.
 
Why the expense/learning curve of .NET, when Perl can handle it through CGI? or Perl/Tk, even Python/TK, or you could mixnmatch PHP/Perl. PHP can handle the data entry stuff very easily, but for the big stuff, simply redirect to a Perl script with the right parameters ... is the product supposed to be exposed to the public domain?

I've done this for a courier company, where all the webpages are PHP, but all the background stuff is Perl (cron jobs, label printing etc etc)

.NET is supposedly all about being able to mix and match different technologies, easily. It's woth a least a 4day weekend/working from home to research the topic, might I suggest a Friday/Monday combination. ;-) Haven't done any .Net stuff myself, so I can't be definitive

HTH
--Paul

cigless ...
 
Thanks for the great input. Looks like it's time to bite-the-bullet and get a GUI going. From the options I know of..Perl/Tk, WIN32::GUI, SpecTcl...anyone have preferences?

BTW...I love this site. The Perl community rocks.

Cheers,

Sloppyhack
 
Now that you're getting into GUI's you're going to have to start charging more for projects because of the amount of effort that will have to go into it.

1. Meeting user groups to ascertain requirements, and budgetary means.
2. Assign the work to a GUI designer to come back with a usable template to implement.
3. Developing the GUI
4. Testing the GUI
5. Overseeing User Acceptance Testing, longer timeline

They all take time, and time costs money

Just another Point Of View

--Paul

cigless ...
 
Great point. I've tried to stress how..yes GUIs are cool..but it will create more development overhead..and will reduce our flexibility all in the name of asthetics. Regardless...the powers that be think GUIs make for a better "product" and make the tools look more professional.

I'd still love some input from the field on best ways to go about the development. Straight Tk, WIN32::GUI, or SpecTcl?

Cheers,

Sloppyhack
 
You may want to think about providing Web Services for the perl output. In this case you may be able to get an off-the-shelf package that can interface with the output and present it using a templating system which you can customise.

I recommend reading Programming Web Services with Perl, if this is something that you could do.

Barbie
Leader of Birmingham Perl Mongers
 
Thanks. I just ordered the book. I know nothing about Web Services and I don't know how it can help, but I love learning new stuff. Love O'Reilly too.

Cheers,

Sloppyhack
 
Another option that hasn't been mentioned yet is wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows), which has Perl bindings here. There's also a GUI-builder, wxGlade which, though originally intended for Python, can generate Perl code too.
 
There's also Qt, which has a sweet GUI-building sweet called designer-qt3 (I think). Now, I tried installing it on my mandrake laptop, and it installed ok, but the designer-qt3 app crashes miserably when I try to use it. seg fault. I think that is a symptom of some crappy lib configs on my box, and not of a reflection of Qt's stability.

Anyways, I've done some Tk, and it's ok, but Qt, with it's really nice GUI IDE, is something I plan on looking at heavily.

--jim
 
Thanks for the input. Qt looks really interesting. I'm curious why no one has given any suggestions regarding the GUI builder that comes with the Komodo IDE?

Cheers,

Sloppyhack
 
Cause its not free, and i mention to your other thread, that it is a bit strange in use.
I have almost every gui except Qt and wx which i didnt like them ( not for a special reason, just like that)

So if you would ask me which of them whould be my choises :

1.Win32::GUI
2.Perl/Tk
3.Gui Loft
4.Komodo 3.0

Starting from 1 of course.
 
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