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VeePee
VeePee: Roadmap/FAQ
Location / Home / Projects / VeePee / Roadmap/FAQ  Roadmap
The following is a list of things which I'd like to see added to VeePee.
- Many more controls. These are simple to implement. The only
difficult part is deciding what the common functionality is
between the supported GUI toolkits.
- An on-line documentation set that integrates with each
supported GUI toolkit's help system.
- Additions to the application APIs to provide script management
tools to the user through the application.
- A simple GUI layout designer that can be accessed through the
application APIs.
- The development of standards for interfacing to common types of
application. For example, VeePee might include a
spreadsheet control that appeared to have the same behaviour
irrespective which spreadsheet the user chooses.
- Enhancements to the VeePee shells to be closer to Tk's
wish.
- Support for other commonly used toolkits (particularly Windows
and Motif/Lesstif).
Why are there so few control/widgets implemented?
VeePee is in the early stages of development. The work so far has
concentrated on getting the framework in place so that implementing new
controls will be easy. However, if you embed VeePee in your application
now, your users can upgrade to new releases of VeePee without you
having to change your application.
Why bother to provide a common interface to GNOME and KDE?
In the real world people pick applications that solve problems for them. It
is likely that these will be a mixture of GNOME and KDE programs. By having a
common scripting environment we increase the chances that the scripting skills
a user develops are transferable between all the applications the user has. We
make the user more productive.
VeePee handles the GUI but how to I make my application's functionality
available to a script?
You need to create a Python module that implements bindings for your
applications functionality. There are tools available to automate much of this
process. Use SWIG if your are developing in C and SIP if you are developing in
C++. You should think very carefully about what functionality you make
available to the user through scripts. Giving the user access to every bit of
functionality is likely to be a hinderance rather than a help.
Could VeePee replace TkInter?
Maybe, one day. The focus on VeePee at the moment is to make it easy
for developers to script-enable their applications. However, with the right
development, there is no reason why VeePee couldn't be used to create
standalone applications.
What's the relationship between VeePee and PyQt/PyKDE?
They are intended to serve different purposes. PyQt/PyKDE (and I guess the same
applies to GNOME-Python) are intended to be used by developers to create
full-blown applications in Python rather than C++. Developing the GUI is an
important part of this development. VeePee is intended to be used by
end-users who just want to get a job done quickly and the last thing they want
is to spend lots of time having to write GUI code.
Isn't implementing a common layer on top of GNOME and KDE just going to hide
lots of the GNOME and KDE functionality?
Yes, and I believe that this is a good thing. VeePee is not intended to
be used for writing large GUI applications in Python. There are Python bindings
available for both GNOME and KDE for that purpose. If you are an application
developer you shouldn't assume that your users are as interested in GUI
development as you are. They are using your application because it solves a
problem for them, and they want to write a VeePee script to extend your
application to solve a specific problem you hadn't thought of.
Isn't supporting multiple GUI toolkits going to be difficult to maintain?
In reality GUI toolkits all provide a similar set of features, they just do it
in different ways. In the current version of VeePee 74% of the code is
GUI independent, 15% is GNOME specific and 11% is KDE specific.
I want to script-enable my non-GUI application. Can I use VeePee for
this?
Yes, just use the application APIs to disable the VeePee initialisation
code. The APIs then just reduce themselves to convenient high level wrappers
around the Python interpreter.
Can I use VeePee to implement some of my application?
Yes, you just create an interpreter, designate a window in your application
where VeePee displays its controls (if applicable) and run a script.
This is completely transparent to the user. This technique is particularly
useful for functions that change frequently are have specific local
requirements that are determined at installation time. Think of it as a simple
plugin capability.
Is KDE v1.1.2 and earlier supported?
No, you need KDE v1.91 or later.
Is Windows95/98/NT/2000 supported?
Not yet. This is planned but I can't say exactly when yet.
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