[Za-pm] Anyone interested in an OS South African project? (a.k.a. keeping this list alive)

Jan Henkins jan at henkins.za.net
Sun Sep 25 14:05:30 PDT 2005


Hello Pieter,

Pieter le Roux wrote:

>I don't think you looked at the products I mentioned.... :-)
>
>  
>
Nope,  however I did give them a quick squiz and realised that the 
concept is waaay over my head. My DB apps, as a sysadmin, centers around 
basic configuration management and web backends, so I'm not even going 
to try to understand how xCase and Case studio work (I keep to things I 
know like SQLite, basic MySQL/Postgresql). The notes I gave you was 
merely meant as a point of view re basic GUI creation toolkits that is 
known to work well (I used some of them quite successfully in a firewall 
project). From what you say it seems to me that you've got your backend 
well under control, so since working with DB tools at that level falls 
well outside my little world I've steered clear of any opinions in that 
regard. So, the GUI stuff I mentioned is just my 1,25c worth, if it has 
any value to you, great! :-) I really hope you find partners in crime 
for developing your system, since it sounds like something that really 
needs doing.

>On Sunday 25 September 2005 01:42, Jan Henkins wrote:
>  
>
>>Hello Pieter,
>>
>>Pieter le Roux wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Up to now I have been using database design tools that run on Window$
>>>because I could not find any similar Open Source products - they are
>>>either too complicated or too simple.
>>>
>>>The tools I have used are:
>>>
>>>X-Case (http://www.f1tech.com/xCase/) - dropped that because the upgrades
>>>are expensive and the program (or Window$) crashes at least once a day.
>>>
>>>At the moment I am using Case Studio (http://www.casestudio.com) and it
>>>works fine, but it is the only program I use on a PC (personal computer)
>>>- I realy want to upgrade the PC to a BC (business computer) .
>>>
>>>I have designed/developed or got from CPAN most of the bits and pieces
>>>needed to develop a similar product - I use Xase Studio's xml output to 
>>>integrate with DBI and Catalyst but  it  would be nice to have a system
>>>with a GUI like Case Studio running in Perl that will generate DBI (or
>>>Class::DBI) and Catalyst::Data modules.
>>>
>>>The part I really need help with is the GUI.
>>>
>>>Anyone interested in helping?
>>>      
>>>
>>OK, in terms of getting a workable prototype going, why do you want to
>>bother with a GUI at this early stage? Reason for this question is that
>>there are fabulous TUI  (text user interface) libs available on CPAN
>>that can help you get going in the meantime, while it will help you to
>>concentrate in getting your backend functionality going properly. For
>>instance, one of my personal favourites on Linux/Unix is the Dialog
>>module, enabling you to build really nice text interfaces including
>>mouse-aware buttons.
>>
>>A quick search on CPAN deeped up these:
>>
>>http://search.cpan.org/~tsch/Gtk2-1.100/pm/SimpleMenu.pm
>>Simple GTK2-based menus (cross-platform, since GTK2 is available for
>>Win32/Linux/Mac). This could be just the ticket, the framework looks
>>nice and simple enough for somebody with no GUI-design experience.
>>
>>http://search.cpan.org/~marcus/Curses-UI-0.95/lib/Curses/UI/Menubar.pm
>>Ncurses-based stuff, works wonderfully under Linux, although I'm not too
>>sure how well it will work in Win32. AFAIK there isn't a "Curses"
>>framework for Win32, although I might be wrong.
>>
>>Anyway, the above two links could save you some time in getting your app
>>in a presentable state. Once you've got a complete usable program
>>(primitive or not, doesn't matter), I would suggest you start a project
>>somewhere in a place like Sourceforge, Savannah
>>(http://savannah.nongnu.org/) or BerliOS (http://www.berlios.de/) so
>>that you can build a proper community around your app. At the very least
>>you can then make use of the versioning tools and things like mailing
>>lists etc, which could prove handy. All three these sites have oodles of
>>bandwidth, which makes it handy in case you get Slashdotted or Freshmeated.
>>    
>>

-- 
Regards,
Jan Henkins
Cell: +27-84-951-4334



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