[Coco] Full GUI DriveWire 4 beta

[Frank Pittel]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 12:17:27PM -0500, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 11:43 AM, Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 28 Dec 2010, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
> >
> >> I'm honestly not sure this is something that you want to mess with.
> >
> > I'm beginning to agree with you.  I develop complex design-automation
> > software for a living (in C++, thankyouverymuch), but Eclipse and Java just
> > bring me to my knees.  Why, for the love-of-mike does it have to be so
> > complicated??  I've never seen more controls, modes, widgets and precisely
> > used (but undefined) terminology in my entire life!
> >
> > At work, I'm forced to use Lotus Notes for corporate communications and HR
> > interaction.  Don't take this the wrong way, but Eclipse strikes me as the
> > Lotus Notes of software development :-).  The Notes motto is:
> >
> > "Why have one concise way to do things if you can implement a dozen
> > variations and unintuitive modes to reach the same point?"
> >
> >> To build the GUI, you will need the SWT libraries, which may or may
> >> not have been installed when you did whatever you did to install
> >> Eclipse.  I always just "install" eclipse by downloading the zip file
> >> from the eclipse website, seems to be as easy as downloading and
> >> unpacking it wherever, ready to go.  Anyway, the SWT libs can be found
> >> here: http://www.eclipse.org/swt/ or maybe via your package manager.
> >>
> >> Things will go smoother if these libraries are already present when
> >> the import into eclipse is done.  If you don't have the SWT libs
> >> already, I'd recommend deleting whatever is currently in Eclipse,
> >> getting the libs, and doing an import.
> >>
> >> To properly import the UI, choose File, Import, General > Existing
> >> Projects into Workspace, and point it at wherever the "DriveWireUI"
> >> directory you checked out from cvs is.
> >>
> >> You can then right click on the head of the newly created DriveWireUI
> >> project in Eclipse and choose "Run" to execute it immediately, or
> >> Export, Java >> Runnable Jar File to create a standalone .jar.
> >
> > All the libraries are present and I've explictly added everything I believe
> > it was complaining about to my class paths.  Doesn't make any difference,
> > it's still carping about missing XML..something.
> >
> 
> Well, this is a clue that something went wrong, as there should not
> have been any complaints to begin with if the import process went
> correctly and the environment (stock Eclipse plus the SWT library)
> were in place.   All the dependencies are included with the source in
> the CVS repository, there is nothing additional required.
> 
> I've helped a handful of people set the DW build environment up, and
> had a few more email me who did it themselves.  It used to be sort of
> tedious but I've improved it to where, for me at least, creating the
> environment on a new machine takes only a few minutes.  I haven't any
> experience with an Eclipse that comes out of a package management
> system, and I suspect the deviation from the normal results may have
> something to do with this.

Aaron,

Thanks again for all your work with drivewire. It may just be me but since you
started working on drivewire 4 there seems to have been a significant increase in
work on new coco software. It looks like you inspired a lot of people to start coding
again. I'm looking forward to trying drivewire 4 but with time constraints being what
they are I don't see having any time until the end of January. I have a "print show"
for the MidWest Large Format Asylum that I have to plan as well as prepare prints
for. We are the largest and most active Large Format photography group in the country
and get together once a year to show our work.

If there's any interest I can bring some of my work to the next cocofest.

I'm looking forward to drivewire 4 and am hoping that it inspires me to spend more
time with nitros and my coco!!

The Other Frank

BTW - Is there any work going on behind the scenes with Gary to allow the coco3fpga
boards to use the drivewire client to use drivewire as more then a replacement for
the four floppies?