[Chicago] Thursday

[Carl Karsten]

Brian Ray wrote:
> I have to stick with mt on this one.  There is not a close enough
> connection between FoxPro and Python to hold a joint meeting. We  
> thank you for the invite and I am sure some of us may attend.  
> Likewise you are welcome to stop in our meeting and learn what Python  
> is all about. Beyond this, it does not warrant further discussion.
> 
> Nevertheless, we do not have a venue for this Thursday.  It sounds  
> like we have at least one speaker, thanks Fawad. Alternatively, if  
> someone from the FoxPro group wants to reserve the Monadnock, this  
> may also work. However, we will be discussing Python. Not Perl, not  
> Ruby, certainly not FoxPro, Python. We may not have much leadership,  
> but we will be talking about Python, or we will be drinking  
> Beer...damit! So if we can not find a conference room, lets meet to  
> drink beer.
> 

You are both correct in general: VFP stuff won't interest most Pythoners.  but 
incorrect about the Dabo talk.   Below is Ed's description.

I can see that some Pythoners want not want to work on a desktop gui or database 
app, but I suspect that most would be interested in it.  Dabo is n-tier, and 
assuming it was done right, the data classes can be used for web apps and the UI 
classes can be used for non data apps.  granted the focus is a gui database app, 
so it may fail to have been designed well, but I would not make that assumption.

Carl K

Ed says:

Dabo is an open-source framework for developing desktop (i.e., rich client) 
applications in Python. There are a ton of web application frameworks, but no 
other projects in Python that target the desktop app other than Dabo.

Its primary target is the group of developers who come from a background in the 
proprietary Microsoft-centric tools, such as Visual FoxPro and Visual Basic, but 
it also targets Delphi, Filemaker, and other desktop application development 
systems who want rich client applications that run unmodified on Windows, Linux 
and OS X.

The focus of the talk will be on the visual tools available in Dabo to help you 
quickly develop serious database applications in Python. Parts of the talk will 
also be directed toward existing wxPython developers who love the results of 
working with that UI toolkit, but who hate the non-Pythonic interface.

I'm a member of both the Fox and Python communities, and I can tell you that 
there are a lot of similarities. Both groups are passionate about their chosen 
language, and both have a spirit of helping and sharing that makes being a part 
of those communities something special. I'm hoping that when Fox developers see 
Dabo, they will see a tool that has the power of Fox when it comes to dealing 
with data, but with the freedom to install apps on virtually any OS, and with 
none of the proprietary EULA headaches that comes from working with a 
Microsoft-owned product.

I'm also hoping that Python developers will come away realizing that the desktop 
market is large and very viable target; the world doesn't only run on web apps! 
Even if they don't develop traditional database-centric apps, they can see how 
much easier and Pythonic the dabo.ui module is than the raw wxPython API, and 
may consider using Dabo for their desktop application needs.