[vtkusers] GUI for VTK (was [DEMO] amira)

[Dave Reed]

> From: Sebastien BARRE <seb-ml-vtk at barre.nom.fr>
> 
> At 10:59 14/06/00 -0400, Dave Reed a écrit:
> 
> > > The idea of building a serious GUI has been around for a while. What I'd
> > > like to see, as features :
> > > **************************
> > >          - OpenSource, and free
> >
> >I was planning to do this - although it would be great to get some
> >funding from Kitware to develop it :-)
> 
> Kitware is hiring, isnt'it :) ?


:-).  I need to stay with my current job for at least a few more
years, but I wouldn't mind some summer employment/consulting income if
I could do it from Ohio instead of New York.



> > >          - platform independent
> >
> >I admit I'm not interested in developing for Windows.
> 
> Fact is that, although I love Linux, we just can't drop Windows (and 
> windows users).


Not yet, anyway :-).  I was just saying if I were to work on it by
myself, I wouldn't worry too much if it could be ported to Windows.  I
do my programming on a Sun (w/ Elite 3D graphics) at work and a Linux
computer at home (I'm waiting for XFree 4.0 to get a little better and
for card prices to drop a little more before getting a 3D video card).

Now, I'm not saying I don't think it's a good idea to develop
something that works on Windows, I just don't have the interest or a
computer with Windows and Windows compilers.


>  Although XFree 4 looks promising, 3D drivers are much more 
> stable for Windows, and there is a lot of high-end cars that are even NOT 
> (and won't get) supported for Linux (I've got a Oxygen GMX 2000 at home, 
> and a SGI 320 NT at work). I guess Linux will grow on the 3D market, but 
> they are still a lot of people using VTK with Windows. And as far as I'm 
> concerned, I can't even install Linux on my SGI 320 NT box. I'm feeling 
> concerned with platform independency, therefore I test my VTK applications 
> on my Linux box at home from time to time (at 1 frame per sec.), but most 
> of the time I'm sticking to NT.
> 
> > >          - completeness and consistency (i.e., access to ALL VTK 
> > functions,
> > > and unified access, meaning that it has to be done automatically, see 
> > below).
> >
> >That's the main reason I think Python is the appropriate choice - you
> >can ask it what all the functions are for an object.
> 
> In Tcl too. Functions are one thing, but parameters are also mandatory (to 
> my opinion) if you want to link these parameters to the objects that are 
> already existing in your GUI, and make the appropriate suggestions to the 
> user (this makes the difference). Does Python allow you to ask for the 
> parameters types ? Not sure. 


I'm not certain either - I haven't seen a way to do it, but I'm still
relatively new to Python.


> Even though, it would be interesting to allow 
> other bindings (Tcl, Java) to access this VTKDB database.


Agreed - just more than I wanted to attempt by myself.


> >I definitely like Python even though I've used it for less than 6
> >months now.  I've never used Tcl.
> 
> Lucky you :)
> 
> > >          - when I click in an object in an object browser, I would like to
> > > see ALL functions that might be applied on that object, AND (that's
> > > important) the TYPE of the parameters of these functions, and the actual
> > > values (using Tcl, it's possible to access the list of one object's 
> > method,
> > > but NOT the parameter's type).
> >
> >My initial thoughts weren't this grand.  I was going to assume people
> >would have to know what connections to make themselves.
> 
> But VTK is so huge. I guess most of us have a vision of the API that is 
> limited or constrained to our specific domain (medical imaging for me).


Again, I'm not saying this isn't a good idea.  It's just more than I
planned to attempt if I did it myself.  From some of the other
e-mails, it appears that others are going to start on a project like
this before I will have time.  I guess I'll see what the status of
those project are when I have some time next year and decide whether
to start my own or help one of the other projects (if they want it).

Dave