Question: tools for business apps development

[Robert M. Emmons]

> For
> my purposes, it must be a native app (wxWidgets, GTK or Qt-based). A
> web application will not do it (although I would love it).

Keep in mind that it is still possible to write an XUL application with 
Mozilla this way, and for example ActiveState has done this to develop 
their IDE.  One could for example write an application that is local and 
then later could be web based.  I've not used XUL but it looks 
interesting.  In a sense maybe this approach is not so different from 
what MS is calling "Avalon" (?) -- the latest and greatest MS vaporware.

I've used Tkinter which has a long history and is probably the most 
portable and stable -- but I've been thinking of trying out wxWidgits. 
GTK+ is really for linux only -- but there is a port to windows, and QT 
-- just be careful with the liscence, it is not free when writing 
commercial code.

> Now, a friend of mine asked
> me to write a new app for his company, and a I suggested doing it in
> Python. 

I can only tell you what my impression is regarding python -- it would 
be good to hear from others.  Most businesses probably use VB or Java 
for what your talking about (or perhaps C++).  I'm not trying to 
encourage that -- and in fact I like and use python.  I have used python 
for a few applications for the business I work for -- Tkinter based and 
I sued PythonWin IDE.  As you say, the development tools were rather 
primative -- and tkinter though claiming to be native -- is not exactly so.

ActiveState provides some commericial tools -- you might want to take a 
look and they also provide a plugin for MS Visual Studio.  This is also 
a wonder -- is there Python support in Eclipse?  I'm not certain.

> -- Which IDEs are better suited for business apps? I use PythonWin for
> most of my scripting work in Windows. On occasion, I edit in PythonWin
> or SciTE and run using the command line interpreter. I've downloaded
> Boa and PythonCard, and while both work (to a reasonable degree), I
> found both lacking for a RAD style development cycle. Are these tools
> being used for production code?

I don't know.  Be good to hear from others.  By the way, emacs also has 
a python mode.  I personally have been thinking of looking at Boa but 
have not used it.

> -- Which free design tools are being actively used for business app
> development? (includes database-design, UML, etc). There are many
> tools available around, but most seem to be abandoned, or were used
> for some specific task and never touched again. I would like to know
> more about what is actually being used in production environments.

Don't know.  Maybe others know.

Take care,
Rob