I am working on a Genetic Algorithm solution to TSP in Lua, and have reached a point where I need a better method of troubleshooting and checking results. The best way to do this would be with a GUI, but I can't seem to find anything about GUIs in Lua.
I've done some searching around Google, and haven't found anything built in to the language. I have found Toolkits such as the one found here:
http://lua-users.org/wiki/GraphicalUserInterfaceToolkits
However, I am new enough to Lua that I do not know how to properly use these. Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
A few ideas:
But first, what platform are you on?
Are you constrained by platform? If not, I've done very exciting things directly on an iPad, in Codea. Pure Lua, built on OpenGL, so built-in API for graphics support.
Beyond that, you could probably use Love2d. It's meant for game dev, but you could probably adapt it to your needs. It's a Lua API, has graphics support, and is cross-platform. I don't know much about it (yet), so others could pipe in with their thoughts/opinions.
If you are still shaky in Lua, I suggest to stick to the console for a while. GUI, whatever the language, is usually messy and unsatisfying for beginners.
If you already know some HTML and Javascript, consider using Lua with a web framework, and using the browser to control your program through a REST API:
Awesome-Lua#Web/Networking Platforms
Apart from that, I have yet to find a GUI framework that feels right for Lua. Almost everything is a thin wrapper around a C or C++ API and handles exactly like that. On the other hand, with the web and Electron on the rise there seems little need for it.
Related
I was looking into Tkinter, but I was wondering if there are any other packages that help with GUI. Even though Java is more robust than python, python is faster to write and would be very helpful if I am just trying to create a quick application. I usually use .Swing and .awt in java to make all of my applications.
Also, Is there something similar to JWS for python? I am looking to add a link on a website that will fire up a python coded application
Thanks
(P.S. I'm using Python 3.2.2)
I love using tkinter with python. It is pretty easy to do, there are lots of examples, and numerous questions with answers on here too! Also, 90% of people with python have tkinter already on their system, making distribution pretty straight forward. I also have had success using py2exe to create windows executables.
Here is a gui that I wrote in all of ~10 minutes. Once you understand the syntax it is very easy.
And another more elaborate one that I wrote with vtk and matplotlib embedded into the gui for 3D and 2D graphics! The question I asked with this.
Yes, python and tkinter are excellent for developing GUIs. While this is true of most scripting languages, I think these two make a particularly good combination.
For most GUIs, functionality is more important than form (ie: eye candy is not top priority). Even then, it's possible to make very nice looking GUIs with Tkinter. Tk has been my go-to toolkit for close to twenty years. It is most easily used with Tcl since that is its native language, but there's no denying the advantage python has over Tcl as far as built-in functionality goes.
That being said, all of the toolkits available to a python programmer are good. Tkinter's main advantages are that it is extremely easy to use and you probably already have it installed, so the barrier for entry is very low.
I am only starting out to learn programming, currently on Python 3.2, and was looking to build a few simple applications and possibly website(s), also simple. I want to know a good GUI library to start that:
is simple with good control (not a major issue, I'm planning to advance as much as possible anyway);
is cross-platform, with a native feel;
has good tutorials somewhere (please post link);
I can use to sell applications/make profit from websites with little to no licensing issues (a must);
can use Chinese characters as strings (not a must, but would definitely be a game changer).
Thanks a lot!
There are two main options for cross platform GUIs in Python 3:
Tkinter is simple and ships with Python, but applications can look a bit ugly. I like this site for learning it, although it's a bit old.
Qt is bigger and more complex, but produces powerful, good looking applications. If you want to make proprietary software with it, you'll need to use PySide, rather than PyQt, but how you use them is almost identical. There are plenty of tutorials online (mainly for PyQt, which has been around longer, but they're fine if you're using PySide).
Both should handle any characters, including Mandarin, so long as the system has fonts with those characters to display them.
Most of the tutorials for both will be based on Python 2, so you'll have to make a few changes. print "foo" becomes print("foo"), and Tkinter becomes tkinter, for example.
Would be usefull to see how things work but not sure on the legality of it
Most Mac apps are written using Cocoa in Objective-C; which, while it is a compiled language, means that there is a fair bit of information left over that could be used by a decompiler.
I'm not sure if there are a lot of decompilers out there that leverages this information, at least I haven't heard of any.
However, there are also another option; F-Script.
F-Script can be used to attach to an executable and explore its interfaces, while not as good as source, it can give you a pretty clear idea of how the executable is built, and how it operates.
As for the legality issue:
IANAL, but as far as I know, reverse-engineering for the purposes of compatibility is legal in many jurisdictions, and I can't imagine that decompiling an executable to look at its code is illegal, unless the specific EULA specifically prohibits it.
Edit: WRT Steam specifically, it is probably NOT written in Cocoa, but C# with some manner of .NET compatibility layer; and it's probably not a good place to start if you want to learn how to make applications for Mac OS X.
By far, the best Mac OS X disassembler I've used is Hopper available here:
http://www.hopperapp.com/
It will also convert the assembly to C pseudo code as best it can. It will generate code flow diagrams with blue lines (true blue, love it) for true and red for false paths.
It's The Mac OS reverse engineering tool. There are even Youtube videos that will show you how to use it.
If it's an open-source app, yes. Otherwise it's possible through decompilation but the output will be a real pain in the ass to look at. If you just want the protocols and the interfaces of categories and classes, have a look at class-dump.
I'm not aware of a nib decompiler.
Whether decompilation is legal: ask a lawyer. This may (and probably does) differ per jurisdiction.
Is it possible to view the source of a mac app?
Realistically, no. Sure, you might be a able to use a decompiler to get a peek, but the kind of output you'll get won't be easy to read. If you're asking this question, this route probably isn't going to be helpful to you.
Specifically interested in GUI and how the steam app for mac works
It's a good bet that it works about the same way that most other applications work. It might use custom controls to look different from a typical application that mostly uses the standard Cocoa controls. But underneath, just about any GUI application written for MacOS X will use the run loops, responder chain, and view hierarchy that Cocoa provide. The main exceptions would be applications that are built mostly using an alternate framework like OpenGL or WebKit.
Figure out what, specifically, the Steam application does that you'd like to do. Take a look at the tools that Cocoa provides to see if you can figure it out yourself; if not, ask about it here.
I have just started learning OpenGL using the tutorials on Nehe, and so far I am following them ok.
How necessary is it to understand all the setup code? The tutorial is using the Win32 api to set up a window, and I think I understand about 50% of the code.
Is it vital to understand all of the system calls and OpenGL boiler-plate initialization stuff, or can I just crack on without getting heavily lost down the line?
This is sort of a subjective question, but my opinion (and that of many others) is that you don't need to write all that platform-specific boilerplate.
If you use another library like GLUT or SDL, it becomes much easier: let the library worry about setting up a window, and then you can focus on learning OpenGL. Unless of course you want to learn the WinAPI, but it seems like your priority lies elsewhere.
The NeHe tutorials are somewhat out of date; I've pointed people towards Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming as a good source to get started, but there are many other "modern" OpenGL tutorials as well. It uses GLUT.
I have a library for Haskell that can take an ordinary web application, run it on a local server, and then open up a window displaying that application using QtWebkit. The code to interface with Qt is very short. However, I would like to avoid the Qt overhead for Windows users.
It seems like the best approach would be to have an alternative to this QtWebkit-based C++ file that instead uses the MSHTML library on Windows. Unfortunately, I have almost no experience with Windows-specific libraries. It seems like I need to use the IWebBrowser2 interface, but that seems mostly speculative.
If someone can point me in the right direction on this, I would be much obliged. The final trick here is that it has to compile with MinGW. Not sure how much of a complication that is in this case.
Thanks
You can use hdirect to call the IWebBrowser2 interface from Haskell. It's messy to code against OLE/COM but it can do the job. Making a C binding to the interface is possible but if you need MinGW then it may actually be harder than a purely Haskell approach.