[wingide-users] requested features survey

Steven D. Arnold wrote:

>If I could modify a function inline in Wing, and then see immediately
>what the output would look like without having to restart the
>debugger, that would be cool.  Think of it as a combination of editing
>code and debugging at the same time -- mix the writing of code and the
>debugging of code into a single action
>

             I think Visual Studio does implement some form of
             incremental debugging that allows you to edit the
             running code and continue the debugger.


>Unfortunately, wxWindows and most other GUIs force you to mix
>interface and code a lot.  You can't just "represent" a wxWindows
>interface and have some tool that will render that interface into an
>actual application, using backend code that you provide.  
>

               I think wxWindows is moving towards an XML-formatted
               resource file (XRC) where you have descriptions of menus,
               windows, dialogs and other GUI resources, while your
               code itself does the "application logic." I believe this
               is similar to the use of Glade with Gtk, though I'm
               not completely sure.

>I would suggest taking a close look at supporting XUL in the GUI
>builder.  With proper modular design, it should be possible,
>eventually, to support other GUI systems as well.  But of GUI systems
>that meet the basic design principles, I think XUL is a strong
>contender -- indeed, in my mind, the strongest contender.
>

                 ActiveState's Komodo did precisely what you described,
                 used XUL to implement a cross-platform IDE for 
Python/Perl/PHP/XSLT.
                 Unfortunately, they seem to have abandoned the project.
                 Komodo was pretty usable and not as sluggish as Mozilla.
                 Dunno if XUL is a better choice than a traditional
                 windowing system which separates UI code from app code
                 e.g., wxWindows+XRC or Gtk+Glade.

                 Manoj