GNUe Traffic #67 For 8�Feb�2003

Editor: Peter Sullivan

By Peter Sullivan

"if you believe in being a one tool guy [...] you can use that hammer to saw wood just fine. Just dont expect exact cuts ;)"

Table Of Contents

• Printer-Friendly Format
• Text Format
• XML Source
• Introduction
• Threads Covered

  1.	31�Jan�2003		Native Win32 GUI for Forms
  2.	3�Feb�2003		Designer 0.4.3 release for wxPython 2.4 compatability
  3.	3�Feb�2003		Alternatives to GNUe for Financials
  4.	3�Feb�2003		GNUe compared to Twisted, Webware and Delphi

Introduction

This Cousin covers the three main mailing lists for the GNU Enterprise project, plus the #gnuenterprise IRC channel. Kernel Cousins GNUe is now group-authored: if you'd like to join the team, let us know.

1. Native Win32 GUI for Forms

31�Jan�2003�Archive Link: "[IRC] 31 Jan 2003"

Summary By Peter Sullivan

Topics: Forms, Common

People: Daniel Baumann,�Jason Cater

Daniel Baumann (chillywilly) asked "what's the issues with the win32 interface?" Jason Cater (jcater) suggested "well, the underlying OS would suck - that would be issue #1" . More specifically, "wx on" Microsoft Windows "isn't letting us intercept all the events that wx under gtk does - so the interaction with the form ends up being inconsistent" between the two interfaces. He was not sure why, but as a result of this "a native Win32 interface is HIGH on our list for forms" . Daniel asked "are there python bindings to the win32 api?" . Jason confirmed this - it was in win32all, "the same package that provides our ODBC support in windows" .

2. Designer 0.4.3 release for wxPython 2.4 compatability

3�Feb�2003�Archive Link: "[IRC] 03 Feb 2003"

Summary By Peter Sullivan

Topics: Designer

People: Andrew Mitchell,�James Thompson,�Peter Sullivan,�Jason Cater

Andrew Mitchell (ajmitch) noted that Jason Cater (jcater) had done "a bugfix 0.4.3 designer" to resolve the problems discussed in Issue�#66, Section�#6� (29�Jan�2003:�Problems with wxPython 2.4 and Designer) . This was version "0.4.3 - since designer was previously at 0.4.2 :) - now it matches forms, iirc - forms & common got bumped to 0.4.3 in december iirc, due to a couple of buglets" , but had not been affected by the wxPython problem.

Andrew also wondered if "jcater might be planning another 0.5.0 prerelease" but James Thompson (jamest) said there would be "no more prereleases for a while - i don't think anyone tried out the last ones :( - and so we moved on" . In any case, "i think i'll be happier w/ the upcomming 0.5.0 release if it has more of the 0.5.x features in it at the beginning anyway" . Peter Sullivan (psu) agreed - "I would guess that people aren;t beating down the door for 0.5.0 as the main change is that it breaks backwards compatability - for a good reason, natch - but still a breakage. All the "goodies" in 0.5.x come later - native UIs, etc" .

3. Alternatives to GNUe for Financials

3�Feb�2003�Archive Link: "[IRC] 03 Feb 2003"

Summary By Peter Sullivan

Topics: Financials (Accounting), Why GNUe?

People: Jason Cater,�Peter Sullivan

It was asked if GNUe was usable for accounting yet. Jason Cater (jcater) explained "if you are looking for an out of the box solution today, then GNUe is not ready for what you need - to date, we have been focusing on the underlying tools - so the actual accounting packages are still very early - most still in planning stages" . It was noted that Compiere (as previously discussed in BROKEN KCREF and other threads) was open source, but required proprietary Oracle database software and a reasonable sized server. Jason Cater (jcater) noted "I tried compiere at one point - and I have oracle installed - I never did get it working :-/ though it appears to be a pretty complete accounting solution" . Peter Sullivan (psu) said that the "problem is that by the time you;ve installed oracle & java, you wonder whether this really counts as "free" (in both liberty & cash senses)" . Jason said "unfortunately there are no good free solutions :( - there are several available that, if you cross your fingers, they may handle your specific case" . Peter speculated "maybe some day SAP will decide to put R/3 under a free license, same as SAP-DB" , but he thought this was unlikely. http://www.wyatt-erp.com was mentioned - Jason noted "wow, they've come along pretty well" .

4. GNUe compared to Twisted, Webware and Delphi

3�Feb�2003�Archive Link: "[IRC] 03 Feb 2003"

Summary By Peter Sullivan

Topics: Forms, Designer, Why GNUe?

People: Keith Jagrs,�Jason Cater,�Derek Neighbors,�Keith

Keith Jagrs (KeithJagrs) said he needed to develop an intranet in python that had ERP-style functionality - "I am evaluating Twisted, Webware and GNUe" . He was "inclined to use web interface - but it could be other GUI , if it's easier" . He needed to develop "modules on inventory, crm, production and management - and also interacts with an existing accounting package" . Jason Cater (jcater) said "the other two tools you mentioned are designed to help simplify the creation of web-based applications - gnue is designed to simplify the creation of database-based applications. If you go with the former then you will be stuck with a web app (which if that's what you want, then that's not a big deal) but you will have to hand-code a lot of the database routines. Gnue does not have a strong web-based mentality - so you won't get that aspect that you are looking for" . Keith said his coworkers "want to develop in delphi" . Jason had not realised that "delphi does web-based" but said "there's a lot of similarities between delphi and gnue, or so I've been told - /me has never used it - derek was a big delphi fan" . Derek Neighbors (derek) said "delphi does web - BUT its FUGLY web. Basically it makes a .dll (or cgi) - and just passes crap through. Its really rather horrid - but if you believe in being a one tool guy - then if your hammer is delphi - you can use that hammer to saw wood just fine. Just dont expect exact cuts ;)"

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