https://github.com/jverzani/gwidgets2

Rewrite of gWidgets
https://github.com/jverzani/gwidgets2

Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Rewrite of gWidgets

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/jverzani/gwidgets2
• Owner: jverzani
• Created: 2011-09-28T04:05:29.000Z (over 13 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2021-01-16T13:25:37.000Z (almost 4 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-05-09T13:07:22.997Z (8 months ago)
• Language: R
• Homepage:
• Size: 1.29 MB
• Stars: 35
• Watchers: 7
• Forks: 9
• Open Issues: 18
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
## The `gWidgets2` package

The `gWidgets2` package is a rewrite of the `gWidgets` package that

allows R users to easily create graphical user interfaces (GUIs) from

within R in a toolkit-independent manner. The package itself sets up

an API for describing these interfaces. An accompanying package

integrates this into the underlying toolkit library.

Currently there are the following packages:

* `gWidgets2RGtk2` for interfacing with the `GTK` set of widgets through the `RGtk2` package. 

* `gWidgets2tcltk` for interfacing with the `TCL/TK` widgets through the `tcltk` package.

* `gWidgets2Qt` for interfacing with the `Qt` set of widget through the `qtbase`

Additionally, for web programming the packages `gWidgetsWWW2` and

`gWidgetsWWW2.rapache` implement basically the same API using the

ExtJs JavaScript libraries.

To use the package you need to have intalled: the underlying graphical

toolkit libraries, one of the basic R interfaces (`RGtk2`, `tcltk` or

`Qt`), then `gWidgets2` and one or more of the `gWidgets2XXX`

packages. The `tcltk` interface is usually the easiest, as the

underlying graphical toolkit libraries are bundled with the standard

windows binary of R, thought `RGtk2` and `Qt` versions work with a

much richer underlying set of controls.

The `gWidgets2` API exposes only a small subset of what is available

in the underlying toolkit, but does it in a fairly easy to learn way

using many of `R`'s standard methods, as possible.

A basic example of making a "hello world" app would be:

```

w <- gwindow("Hello...", visible=FALSE)       ## a parent container

g <- ggroup (cont = w)                        ## A box container

b <- gbutton("Click me for a message", cont=g, expand=TRUE)  ## some control

addHandlerClicked(b, function(...) {          ## adding a callback to an event

  gmessage("Hello world!", parent=w)          ## a dialog		    

})

visible(w) <- TRUE                            ## a method call

```

Though short, this example illustrates the range of basic tasks needed

to construct a GUI. Some other examples are in the `examples`

directory of the package and the package `vignette`.

## Why a rewrite of the `gWidgets` package?

* This should be much faster (early benchmarking is about 10-100% as

  fast). The gWidgets package had a cumbersome dispatch mechanism

  based on S4 methods. This rewrite uses a lighter-weight S3 dispatch

  and reference classes.

* Should be easier to maintain. The documentation is done with

  roxygen2. The old version was by hand. It required some tedious

  stuff, best left unsaid. 

* rethinking some of the argument names, functions etc.. I don't think

  we need `gcommandline`, `gformlayout`, `ggenericwidget`, etc. These

  are best left to a separate package, if at all. Most of the

  arguments were made to be consistent. There weren't major changes,

  but enough to warrant adding a "2" to the package name.

* The code in the toolkit implementations needed cleaning up. Lots of

  it. This rewrite gave reason to do so.

* putting more structure on the toolkit. Before the class structure

  was left alone, leaving open the possibility that it could be made

  better (by someone else). Well, it wasn't. By enforcing a class

  structure with specific method names in the toolkit packages the

  code becomes more consistent. It should also make it easier for users

  to derive subclasses

* adding in some other features. For example, `gprogressbar`, `gtimer`, `gstackwidget`, ...