[WIP] GUI abs(traction) layer 🏋 #1693

danomatika · 2022-06-13T13:51:51Z

This is research/brainstorming PR for refactoring the communication between the Pd core and the GUI.

Note: This is not a full, open rewrite away from Tcl/Tk but a refactor and abstraction to allow for implementing custom GUIs without worrying about Tcl-specifics. Also, this current work maintains the editing logic within the core.

Please keep the discussion focused on technical considerations. This is not meant to be a GUI feature wish list!

Goals:

Refactor TCL-specific string handling & escaping into single function / interface #1694
Refactor away (or at least centralize) Tcl/Tk string formatting within the core
toolkit-agnostic Core->GUI Communication #1695
Move GUI API drawing specifics out of the core into the GUI (ex: "draw a bng" as opposed to "draw a box, draw a circle, draw an inlet, draw an outlet, ...")
Develop/implement a communication API (which could also be used by externals)
Allow for message communication via callback as well as network for use in libpd
Maintain modularity for the layer (ie. refactor into separate file that could extended or compiled optionally?)
Accomplish the points above without breaking anything... 🤭

Possible workflow (step by step without large changes at once):

Refactor TCL-specific string handling & escaping into single function / interface
Refactor one GUI object or drawing routine, ie. something simple like "bng"
Finalize communication specs
Refactor other GUI objects
Create an example GUI external?
...

References:

Purr Data GUI messaging spec (Jonathan Wilkes, et al.)
- Ex: bng core g_bang.c: https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/purr-data/-/blob/master/pd/src/g_bang.c#L60
- Ex: bng gui pdgui.js: https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/purr-data/-/blob/master/pd/nw/pdgui.js#L3639
"3 commits as a PoC of the sort of changes for a GUI-independent backend" (Guilo Moro)

Questions / Considerations (so far):

What about dialogs?
We should provide a set of basic drawing routines for data structures and externals.
How to optimize array draw communication, etc?

- Exec: provide arguments to 'pd-gui' so dragging files on the deskto icon launches Pd - Categories: see https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html - replace the invalid "Multimedia" with "AudioVideo" - add "Development" - add "Music" - add "Graphics" - Comment: slightly different wording with a couple of translations - NoDisplay: drop the explicit setting to "false" (it's the default anyhow)

AppStream prefers the scheme: <tld>.<vendor>.<product> and AppStream forces us to use the same id for the .desktop file as for the appstream metainfo. so let's switch now, rather than later...

to be used by app-store like software, e.g. "gnome-software"

The same file is available as tcl/pd.xpm

Add Appstream metainfo and more

also add some more fields to the metainfo. and use "Pure Data (Pd)" as the application name.

better than renaming...

fixups and automate installation of mimeinstall

…on an non-available xy position (eg. in a multi-monitor setup).

Closes: #1595

Closes: #1583

Closes: #1646

also remove redundant gatom_senditup.

don't set EOF if there is a pending "open" request

copy t_soundfile struct with mutex locked because it might be set concurrently in readsf_child_main() resp. writesf_child_main()

+ remove redundant sfread_cond_signal() call

…rsion

* fix [route] rejected output for bang input with float arguments currently, nothing is output, this fixes it closes #1678

in 2022, there are a couple of text editors out there, that will automatically break lines at whatever position you want. it's probably not "notepad.exe" (but you really shouldn't use that anyhow)

Closes: #1656

Closes: #1684

fixes a regression of 8f089c7 that would prevent autopatching (as whenever a new object gets created with the old one not yet instantiated, the text would be lost)

danomatika · 2022-06-13T14:05:02Z

As a user for a possible libpd GUI communication API with my PdParty application on iOS, I would like:

replace my custom UIKit & CoreGraphics Pd GUI implementations with simply drawing calls controlled by the pd core.
pipe input events from UIKit into the pd core to allow for consistent behavior between desktop and (mobile) Pd
add multitouch event handling within Pd for those GUI APIs / frameworks which support more than a single mouse

danomatika · 2022-06-13T14:08:47Z

As I assume develop can/should be merged at some point, I would keep it pointed to master. OTOH if your question is more a workflow issue, then maybe it makes sense to point to develop.

In any case, I needed at least one commit to be able to open a PR, so I chose those in develop.

Spacechild1 · 2022-06-13T14:28:17Z

I agree with the goals and workflow suggestion!

As someone who wants to write a (fast) alternative desktop GUI, I would like to emphasize the importance of goal number 2:

Move GUI API drawing specifics out of the core into the GUI (ex: "draw a bng" as opposed to "draw a box, draw a circle, draw an inlet, draw an outlet, ...")

With GUI frameworks like Qt you would not draw Pd objects by issuing individual canvas drawing commands. Instead, you would instantiate a single (custom) Qt widget that already knows how to draw itself. This would be much more efficient because
a) there's only a single command to send to the GUI (= less traffic)
b) there will be fewer objects in the canvas container (e.g. QGraphicsScene).

Actually, a) would also apply to the Tcl GUI.

It also gives the widget a chance to decide how it wants to draw itself. For example, it might want to use vector graphics instead of individual draw calls.

umlaeute · 2022-06-13T15:06:19Z

to keep the posts managable, i've opened a discussion #1694 (more to follow)

umlaeute · 2022-09-01T19:41:56Z

this pseudo-PR got accidentally closed as a side-effect of merging #1696 (:tada: for that).

it's probably better to use github discussions and projects instead of such a meta PR.

mxa and others added 30 commits August 4, 2021 13:27

added x-puredata.xml file

7a05a97

added icon and .desktop files

6805495

added 512 icon file

43f3d2f

Fix typos in g_canvas.c's comments

181a1b7

Rename .desktop file to make it more unique

b8b0a0c

AppStream prefers the scheme: <tld>.<vendor>.<product> and AppStream forces us to use the same id for the .desktop file as for the appstream metainfo. so let's switch now, rather than later...

Add AppStream metainfo

67fa252

to be used by app-store like software, e.g. "gnome-software"

Remove linux/pd.xpm

c2eef3a

The same file is available as tcl/pd.xpm

Merge pull request #1 from umlaeute/feature/mime-install

ec220be

Add Appstream metainfo and more

Fix metainfo so it displays an icon

984ae8c

also add some more fields to the metainfo. and use "Pure Data (Pd)" as the application name.

move icons into subdirectories to ease their use in 'make install'

a78b22a

better than renaming...

install icons/desktop/appstream data on Linux

ca6ba5d

Merge pull request #2 from umlaeute/feature/mime-install

c2e8e04

fixups and automate installation of mimeinstall

win32: place the patch window in the current display if it was saved …

10191a6

…on an non-available xy position (eg. in a multi-monitor setup).

Merge branch 'feature/mime-install' into develop

6c6448c

Merge branch 'pr/1627' into develop

1765c98

Attach canvas to error-message when setting data-properties

20ea43f

Protect scalar-properties against empty binbufs

ffa7317

Closes: #1595

radios: fix changing number of cells on invisible canvas

885a7cd

Closes: #1583

Fix accidental differences in code of hdial and vdial code

c52f6a4

use t_radio and t_slider for both vertical and horizontal variants

2e21ca4

Fix autopatching offset when zoomed-in

a9aa929

Closes: #1646

drop unnecessary includes

c5c1319

remove unnecessary includes

0392f2c

Windows: include <io.h> for 'lseek'

00c63cc

optimisation: allow for NaNs and INFs in the numbers

ed82e98

unqueue gatoms on free

a40ae4e

also remove redundant gatom_senditup.

readsf~: fix regression with [open( message

09eacb8

don't set EOF if there is a pending "open" request

fix possible race condition in readsf_perform() and writesf_perform()

e4cacb7

copy t_soundfile struct with mutex locked because it might be set concurrently in readsf_child_main() resp. writesf_child_main()

readsf_perform: minimize critical section in EOF branch

092b780

+ remove redundant sfread_cond_signal() call

Spacechild1 and others added 12 commits May 25, 2022 13:30

readsf/writesf: cosmetic fixes

d575829

[sig~] use global dsp_add_scalarcopy() and benefit from vectorized ve…

0e0e7be

…rsion

rename d_ugen/sig_tilde_perform() and perf8()

8fb98b1

Merge branch 'soundfile-fixes' into 'develop'

6474c8e

Merge branch 'gatom_unqueue' into 'develop'

220d55f

Merge branch 'fix-sig~' into 'develop'

d2f4128

document Tk 8.6.12 patch for macOS<10.12

04337be

fix [route] rejected output for bang input with float arguments (#1680)

03e30d3

* fix [route] rejected output for bang input with float arguments currently, nothing is output, this fixes it closes #1678

drop artificial link-break in Pd-files after 65 characters

540321f

in 2022, there are a couple of text editors out there, that will automatically break lines at whatever position you want. it's probably not "notepad.exe" (but you really shouldn't use that anyhow)

ungrab atomboxes when creating new gobjs

8f089c7

Closes: #1656

guess the window position for fresh windows

7823102

Closes: #1684

do not retext grabbed objects when ungrabbing them

48f229e

fixes a regression of 8f089c7 that would prevent autopatching (as whenever a new object gets created with the old one not yet instantiated, the text would be lost)

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

umlaeute marked this pull request as draft June 13, 2022 15:04

millerpuckette merged commit 48f229e into master Sep 1, 2022

umlaeute mentioned this pull request Sep 22, 2022

toolkit-agnostic Core->GUI Communication - WIP #1763

Closed

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

[WIP] GUI abs(traction) layer 🏋 #1693

[WIP] GUI abs(traction) layer 🏋 #1693

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited by umlaeute

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited

This comment was marked as resolved.

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited

This comment was marked as resolved.

Spacechild1 commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited

umlaeute commented Jun 13, 2022

umlaeute commented Sep 1, 2022

[WIP] GUI abs(traction) layer 🏋 #1693

[WIP] GUI abs(traction) layer 🏋 #1693

Conversation

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 • edited by umlaeute

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 • edited

This comment was marked as resolved.

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 • edited

This comment was marked as resolved.

Spacechild1 commented Jun 13, 2022 • edited

umlaeute commented Jun 13, 2022

umlaeute commented Sep 1, 2022

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited by umlaeute

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited

danomatika commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited

Spacechild1 commented Jun 13, 2022 •

edited