Re: [MacPerl] Prototyping Mac GUIs in MacPerl

[pvhp@forte.com (Peter Prymmer)]

Chris Nandor wrote:

> At 17.23 -0400 1998.08.10, Mark Manning/Muniz Eng. wrote:
> >However, Perl, MacPerl, and Perl for the IBM can handle (if I remember
> >correctly) GUI interfaces.  There is an X Window interface available on
> >CPAN as well as an OpenGL interface (which supposedly works on the IBM
> >too).  If these work (I have never tried them) then Perl/MacPerl could
> >still be the way in which to go.  :-)
> 
> Pretty much any GUI stuff for Unix perl requires Tk, including all the GL
> stuff I know about.  There are some non-Tk GUI modules for Windows perl,
> but likely those call Windows APIs.

No Chris you are mistaken.  The OpenGL modules are completely independent of 
Tk (OpenGL does graphics but it is possible to write widgets and event loops 
in OpenGL scripts).  To the extent the PDL modules do GUIs (via other modules 
such as Karma) they too are independent of Tk.  There are a number of raw and 
not so raw (ie lib based) X modules, including Ken Fox's X11::* modules.  
This list was recently taken from
http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html

Other Major X Windows User Interface Modules:

Gtk            cdcO  binding of the Gtk library used by GIMP      KJALB
Gimp           bdcO  Interface to write plug-ins for The Gimp     MLEHMANN
Sx             Rdcf  Simple Athena widget interface               FMC
Fresco         cd+O  Interface to Fresco (post X11R6 version)     BPETH
Qt             ad+O  Interface to the Qt toolkit                  AWIN

X11::
::Auth         adpO  Read and handle X11 '.Xauthority' files      SMCCAM
::Fvwm         RdcO  interface to the FVWM window manager API     RJRAY
::Keysyms      adpf  X11 key symbols (translation of keysymdef.h) SMCCAM
::Lib          adcO  X11 library interface                        KENFOX
::Motif        bdcO  Motif widget set interface                   KENFOX
::Protocol     adpO  Raw interface to X Window System servers     SMCCAM
::Toolkit      adcO  X11 Toolkit library interface                KENFOX
::Wcl          bdcO  Interface to the Widget Creation Library     JHPB !
::XEvent       bdcO  provides perl OO acess to XEvent structures  MARTINB
::XFontStruct  bdcO  provides perl OO access to XFontStruct       MARTINB
::Xforms       bdcO  provides the binding to the xforms library   MARTINB

> So unless you have a liberal definition of "GUI" (or a conservative
> definition of "portable" :-) there is no portable GUI for Perl.

The Tk module(s) work under X11 and under Win32 on 95/NT, as well as 
(at least) Xfree86, and PM on OS/2.  That already crosses several platforms 
and at least three very different Graphical User Interface libraries.  
It does *not* include the Mac however.

For broader definitions of user interface, Character cell modules, such 
as Curses work on a large number of platforms.  I don't know if that (or 
Term::* for that matter) work on the Mac - anybody?

I believe Tcl/Tk was mentioned in this thread.  While it can certainly be 
used on most unices, microsoft OSes, and the Mac; folks should be aware 
that Tcl/Tk on the Mac does not do AppleEvents.  MacPerl does, but MacPerl 
does not do Perl/Tk - sort of a quandary (C, C++, and Java all work on those 
three classes of platform though).

Peter Prymmer

 

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