[PD-dev] Re: pure devil (fwd)

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Tue, 9 Aug 2005, B. Bogart wrote:

> How would a graphical external be written in such a system with multiple
> interchangable patchers/guis?

A few possibilities:

1. it would be rewritten for every target GUI. This makes it possible to 
adapt to every GUI's strengths and weaknesses.

2. there would be a common GUI-drawing API that can be used from C. This 
is what Gunther (?) has suggested some time ago, ... I think it was in a 
discussion about g_canvas.h.

3. there would be a common GUI-drawing API that can be used from PD. This
   is more interesting than (2) because it allows abstractions to be GUI
   objects without having to be GOP.

4. Miller's "data structures" thingy.

Several of the above would be implemented concurrently, each focusing on
different niches. The problem with (2,3,4) is that they are geared towards
the current thin-client approach whereas (1) follows my fat-client
approach. That's unless we get into the business of putting a 
mini-pd-server in the client which cares only about the gui stuff... 
(wheee!!!)

> I think we would loose a lot if graphic external "A" only works on PD
> gui 2.3 and not on any others...

Therefore it's important to balance this loss with the gain of how easier 
it will become to write graphic externals, so that the net result is a 
gain.

> For me a nice API would include a nice way to build gui externals. Ever
> nicer would be a cross-toolkit method of doing so. A heftly task I
> imagine.

Well, IMHO, what could go a long way is just mapping the Tk Canvas to Pd 
messages and make emulators of that for other toolkits. This would recycle 
the knowledge that Pd GUI developers already have right now, so that 
portable GUI objects may be written without having to learn a whole new 
API.

____________________________________________________________________
Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada