[RkWard-devel] RKWard development docs online

[David Sibai]

Hi Thomas,
> Another cool thing is having plugins for the data-editor(s). The main issue
> here, that I don't really understand, how you solved it, is, how the data
> is being passed here.
> Could you try to give a rough sketch of how exactly those plugins can
> operate on the same data? I mean, the plugins I have so far don't do
> anything but generate R-syntax. They need to know very little about the
> rest of the application. The only point here, is that they use the same
> list of available objects (which is taken care of in the varselector).
> But how exactly does this kind of data-sharing work for the "full
> mini-applications"? How does a data-editor plugin transfer the data back
> and forth?
I'm not sure I really understand your question, but I'll try. 
As you've read, plugins can call each other: that's what happens here. 
Basically the data-editor plugin (GUI stuff) calls the data-center plugin 
(non GUI) which will do the job (something alike 
values=datacenter.get("myvariable")) . If you want to edit the type of your 
variable, use the dataformat-editor (GUI stuff) that will then call a 
dataformat-center  plugin (non-GUI). Much like the varselector, there is a 
list of available variables. 

>
> On a related matter, do you happen to know more about embedding Python I
> C++/Qt?
No, actually. My app was written in full python/wxPython precisely to avoid 
this.
> I'm currently thinking about whether it would be possible to 
> basically write some (dynamic/plugin-like) widgets in pyQt and embed those
> inside the main application. If something like this would be available, it
> should be somehow possible to - for example - create a pyQt-widget which
> derives from RKEditor and use that as an editor for certain types of data?
I believe that would be possible. 
> Would such a widget "live" in the same event loop as the rest of the GUI?
I don't know, but I suppose so. With wxPython, my app kept creating/destroying 
widgets dynamically, which were all members of the same hierarchy (they all 
depended on the top level window), and lived in the same event loop. That's 
why I suppose it would be possible.
>
> Well, I don't know much at all about pyQt or python in general, but I'd
> like to get an idea of what would be possible and how hard it would be to
> integrate. Could you give me some pointers?
for a basic python tutorial, see 
http://python.org/doc/current/tut/      

There is also a PDF version if you need to print it.

For general Qt scripting (I know that's not much),
http://doc.trolltech.com/qq/qq10-scripting-qt.html

For pyQt tutorial and integration with regular Qt, have a look at the 
following:
http://www.opendocs.org/pyqt/                       (check out appendix A in 
particular, gives a good clear example)
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/sip/

Cheers,
 David