mehblog

I’m looking at writting some apps for the Linux desktop at the moment, probably using wxPython, but one thing that has been really confusing for me of late is the various toolkits for the two main linux desktop environments, namely Gnome and KDE. So, as a bit of an aid de memoir for myself, QT is kde and GTK is gnome.

Recently a discussion has begun about the future direction of the Linux desktop. Well perhaps ‘started’ isn’t the right word, but this article written by Havoc Pennington seems to have sparked off something of a blog war between himself and Miguel de Icaza. The crux of the discussion seems to be about what platform the future linux desktop is going to be based upon. On the one hand one has Mono which is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s ’.NET framework’, and on the other hand we have Java. And of course the current C/C++. Now, to be honest until recently I was pretty much ignorant of what all the fuss was about, but having read numerous blog posts and articles I am beginning to get it. It would seem that each ‘alternative’ has its benefits and drawbacks (like most things in life I suppose). Java has a lot of momentum behind it, and is backed by companies such as Sun and IBM. So there is a lot of support for it. However, as Java is not open source it can be troublesome for some developers, particularily when you add the GPL into the mix. Mono is completely open source and is backed by Novell. However, many open source developers are reluctant to use Mono as it is perceived as being linked to Microsoft, i.e. an OS implementation of a MS product. And there are lots of people who are nervous about the multitude of patents that MS holds with regard to .NET. Understandable I suppose. I have used java on and off over the years but I am certainly no expert. I quite like java in many respects. I hadn’t ever tried Mono though, so I downloaded it and installed the CLI and the compiler onto one of my boxes (a pleasantly painless experience I might add) . I compiled a simple HelloWord script and compiled it. It ran just fine. I then copied the binary to one of my Windows XP boxes which has the latest version of the .NET runtime on it, and the binary ran just fine there too which was pretty cool (ok, I wasn’t exactly stretching things with this example). Apparently the start of the binary file holds instructions for windows to run the file through the .NET VM or something like that, so on windows you can just double-click the file and it runs properly. Neat. Going beyond the HelloWorld example, there is GTK# for writting GUI applications. The Mono project is using GTK# instead of windowsForms as I believe a lot of the patent issues involve the windows forms classes, so using GTK# avoids the whole problem. Right, this post is getting very long and is turning into a review(ette) of Mono which wasn’t the intention. More later …

Hope everyone has a great day remembering their Irish roots. ;) Most notably today is my Dad’s birthday. Happy birthday MPD!

Hans Nowak has written what can best be described as a wrapper for wxPython which is a Python port of wxWindows, an

open source C++ GUI framework to make cross-platform programming child’s play. Well, almost.

Almost indeed. As someone who is new to python, and also to wxWindows, Hans’ wax is a godsend. It wraps up all of those nasty, hard to remember apis in nice simple objects. So, I should finally get around to doing some of these GUI projects on my list.

Just spotted this article on the The Register about rumours of Nokia potentially evaluating Python for their series 60 platform. Outstanding. Its a bit of a pity that its a limited trial initially, but I suppose doing the trials in a controlled manner should lead to quicker and perhaps better quality feedback.

It would seem that Nokia are going to release a version of Perl for their series 60 phones. This is very cool indeed. Why? Well, at the moment if you want to develop for mobiles (and series 60 phones in this case) then you have to either use C++ (steep learning curve, lots of power) or Java and J2ME (easier to learn, nowhere near as much power). Having a ‘third way’ is going to be great. Actually there is OPL which is quite usable but as I don’t have a series 60 phone (yet) I don’t know for sure. Of course, whether or not Perl is the right choice here is open to debate. Personally I would have preferred Python ...