RE: [Pythoncard-users] six blind men describe the beast

> From: Rowland Smith
>
> > I think the above 3 points constrains the likely user domain to
> programmers
> > more then John and Jane Q. Public. Not a criticism, just a
> point - but is
> > that the desired target audience? HyperCard (HC here after) gave the the
> > average "toaster" user the ability to drag objects into a
> pleasing (to them)
> > arrangement and viola! they had something usable...
>
>
> A sophisticated visual development environment is a must for non
> programmers.

We definitely need to be precise here. I don't particuarly care about the
non-programmers as far what you can do with PythonCard if non-programmers
means people that aren't going to do any scripting in Python. Dan's
"Inventive Users" are described as people "who are willing to learn
scripting but not programming, and who need things that rapidly prototype
and turn into usable application-like things with minimal hassle." I don't
understand the programming part, since scripting is programming, but the
rest sounds right for the less sophisticated programmer end of our audience.

Anyone can create something on top of wxPython, with or without PythonCard
extras that lets people design forms and create simplistic free-form
databases but doesn't support any scripting. It is basically just a
combination of what we're already doing with the resourceEditor, addresses,
and textIndexer samples. That is a specific type of application though, not
a framework for a larger class of applications.

I guess what I'm saying is that the intended audience I have in mind does
not include people looking for a dumbed down FileMaker or HyperCard that
only goes up to user level 4 (authoring). I'm aiming at people that want to
use Python to solve problems and need a GUI interface.

> >>the primary focus is on small and simple
> >>    GUI programs written by one person or at most a few people,
> >>    not a team working on a large six-month or multi-year project.
> >>
> >>if simple programs are not simple to create and maintain we've failed.
> >>
> >
> > I think that at a certain level, if anyone has to actually
> write code to get
> > the simplest application, that's a miss.
>
> This comes back to the Visual Development Environment ( VDE ) - We
> really need to start spec'ing it out from a requirements standpoint.

You'll have to describe what you have in mind, it sounds like something more
elaborate than what we've discussed in the past.

> >>uses wxPython as the cross-platform GUI toolkit
> >>    simplifies writing wxPython programs
> >>
>
>
> We're really only limited by the platforms that Python AND wxPython
> support, right?

Yes.

ka