Re: C with embedded Lua or Lua-only program?

[Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml@...>]

Silas Silva, 03.09.2010 17:40:
> > Wouldn't it make more sense to use a graphical DSL instead of a textual
> > one? For example, you could use the Qt designer to model your GUI, and then
> > generate the platform independent GUI representation from that. Or use an
> > HTML editor and map the HTML/CSS output to Qt/GTK+/whatever. Few people
> > write user interfaces manually these days.
>
> Well, my plan is to address pitfalls of visual designers.

Why not just invest the time into fixing them instead?


> Qt Designer, for instance, generates a .ui file which is not more than a
> XML.  I'm not going to start a flame war about whether or not XML is a
> good format, but for me it is definitively not

If the tools that do the job work with XML natively, then XML is pretty 
much the format of choice.


> with XML I can't diff
> the file between version X and version X+1 and get a good diff about
> what changed.  With XML I can't change it manually and know what I am
> doing.

You seriously need to look into XML tools before making such claims.


> If I were using a format with the same purpose of XML, I'd
> prefer YAML or JSON.

AFAICT, those aren't used by visual GUI design apps, so they wouldn't be 
*my* first choice for the task at hand.


> I think Steve Donovan pointed out some other good pitfalls of visual
> designers.  I'm not discarding visual designers, I'm just saying that
> I'd like to use a more Unix-like tool (universal interface: text input,
> text output) to generate them.

Sure, if you think you need to define yet another language to describe GUI 
interfaces, just go ahead, you wouldn't be the first one. You likely won't 
come close to the power or completeness of XUL or HTML5, but you might 
still manage to design and implement a usable niche language. Just make 
sure you can properly interface with the available designer tools, both 
ways in and out, because a lot of people *will* want to use them.

Stefan