From jason.iacovoni at inserm.fr Tue Apr 9 09:51:27 2013 From: jason.iacovoni at inserm.fr (Jason S. Iacovoni) Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 09:51:27 +0200 Subject: [RQt-devel] General question about the future of Qt and R/bioconductor Message-ID: Dear List I have previously developed a lot of GUIs for my bioinformatics programs using Qt (in C++). But nowadays, I find I spend most of my time in R. Thus I was initially quite excited when I found out about visnab, ggobi, exploRase and qtbase. Before I start porting my library into R, I want to know what exactly is the planned future for qtbase. While I understand that SMOKE does a lot of the work bringing Qt into R, is it possible that this package will become abandoned in the future? >From my googling and list reading, it seems that visnab is not active and that ggobi is mentioned as the current project. But in looking at exploRase, which imports rggobi, it appears to use Gtk2 and not Qt. At the same time, I see that getting a Windows package for qtbase is moving forward. But this particular list seems very quiet, almost too quiet, so I am hesitant. In any event, I am very confused about the present and the future of qtbase as the library looks perfectly suitable for me to port my C++/Qt code into R. But I would hate to get started on this only to find that developers are moving off to other GUI toolkits and find that my library depends on an abandoned project. Finally, I seem to be finding myself learning loads of packages that list Michael Lawrence as an author. Is this really one single person? Are there clones available for hire? Thanks jiaco -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lawrence.michael at gene.com Tue Apr 9 15:51:50 2013 From: lawrence.michael at gene.com (Michael Lawrence) Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 06:51:50 -0700 Subject: [RQt-devel] General question about the future of Qt and R/bioconductor In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Jason, On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 12:51 AM, Jason S. Iacovoni wrote: > Dear List > > I have previously developed a lot of GUIs for my bioinformatics programs > using Qt (in C++). But nowadays, I find I spend most of my time in R. Thus > I was initially quite excited when I found out about visnab, ggobi, > exploRase and qtbase. Before I start porting my library into R, I want to > know what exactly is the planned future for qtbase. While I understand that > SMOKE does a lot of the work bringing Qt into R, is it possible that this > package will become abandoned in the future? > The qtbase package is not abandoned. It's just fairly mature. I was working last week on Qt 5 support, but it turns out that Smoke just isn't ready. The cranvas project is actively developing on top of qtbase and qtpaint. > > From my googling and list reading, it seems that visnab is not active > visnab has been on the back burner as Tengfei worked on ggbio and other things for his thesis. The good news is that his new job is likely to support continued development of the software. Actually, he fixed a bunch of bugs in visnab last week. > and that ggobi is mentioned as the current project. > I think you mean the anagram "ggbio".. > But in looking at exploRase, which imports rggobi, it appears to use Gtk2 > and not Qt. > exploRase is my PhD project which some day might be reimplemented using cranvas or something web-based. The GGobi/rggobi project is mostly in "end of life mode" though. RGtk2 is still very much maintained and supported. At the same time, I see that getting a Windows package for qtbase is moving > forward. But this particular list seems very quiet, almost too quiet, so I > am hesitant. > > Once there is a Windows version, things may be more active. So much is being done on the web these days when it comes to GUIs, but there is still a niche for the desktop. > In any event, I am very confused about the present and the future of > qtbase as the library looks perfectly suitable for me to port my C++/Qt > code into R. But I would hate to get started on this only to find that > developers are moving off to other GUI toolkits and find that my library > depends on an abandoned project. > > At least for Linux and Mac, you should expect qtbase and qtpaint to be maintained and further developed into the foreseeable future. > Finally, I seem to be finding myself learning loads of packages that list > Michael Lawrence as an author. Is this really one single person? Are there > clones available for hire? > > The closest thing to my clone is still 8 years old. Have not yet found a way to accelerate aging. Michael Thanks > jiaco > > _______________________________________________ > Qtinterfaces-devel mailing list > Qtinterfaces-devel at lists.r-forge.r-project.org > > https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/qtinterfaces-devel > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jason.iacovoni at inserm.fr Wed Apr 10 10:19:25 2013 From: jason.iacovoni at inserm.fr (Jason S. Iacovoni) Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:19:25 +0200 Subject: [RQt-devel] General question about the future of Qt and R/bioconductor In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 3:51 PM, Michael Lawrence wrote: > Hi Jason, > > > On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 12:51 AM, Jason S. Iacovoni < > jason.iacovoni at inserm.fr> wrote: > >> Dear List >> >> I have previously developed a lot of GUIs for my bioinformatics programs >> using Qt (in C++). But nowadays, I find I spend most of my time in R. Thus >> I was initially quite excited when I found out about visnab, ggobi, >> exploRase and qtbase. Before I start porting my library into R, I want to >> know what exactly is the planned future for qtbase. While I understand that >> SMOKE does a lot of the work bringing Qt into R, is it possible that this >> package will become abandoned in the future? >> > > > The qtbase package is not abandoned. It's just fairly mature. I was > working last week on Qt 5 support, but it turns out that Smoke just isn't > ready. The cranvas project is actively developing on top of qtbase and > qtpaint. > > Sounds great, will definitely want to use qtpaint and cranvas as well once the underlying nuts and bolts are in place. > >> From my googling and list reading, it seems that visnab is not active >> > > visnab has been on the back burner as Tengfei worked on ggbio and other > things for his thesis. The good news is that his new job is likely to > support continued development of the software. Actually, he fixed a bunch > of bugs in visnab last week. > > >> and that ggobi is mentioned as the current project. >> > > I think you mean the anagram "ggbio".. > Ok, my bad. I now see that there are 2 different projects. I think my brain never processed the 2 different spellings. Thanks. > > >> But in looking at exploRase, which imports rggobi, it appears to use >> Gtk2 and not Qt. >> > > exploRase is my PhD project which some day might be reimplemented using > cranvas or something web-based. The GGobi/rggobi project is mostly in "end > of life mode" though. RGtk2 is still very much maintained and supported. > > At the same time, I see that getting a Windows package for qtbase is >> moving forward. But this particular list seems very quiet, almost too >> quiet, so I am hesitant. >> >> > Once there is a Windows version, things may be more active. So much is > being done on the web these days when it comes to GUIs, but there is still > a niche for the desktop. > > Definitely important. The whole goal of Qt has been to be cross platform. Also a very strong advantage to R, so I praise the people working on this and wish them success. And congrats to those that made it possible on Mac, I have never found it easy to build my Qt libs and apps on Mac. > > >> In any event, I am very confused about the present and the future of >> qtbase as the library looks perfectly suitable for me to port my C++/Qt >> code into R. But I would hate to get started on this only to find that >> developers are moving off to other GUI toolkits and find that my library >> depends on an abandoned project. >> >> > At least for Linux and Mac, you should expect qtbase and qtpaint to be > maintained and further developed into the foreseeable future. > > >> Finally, I seem to be finding myself learning loads of packages that list >> Michael Lawrence as an author. Is this really one single person? Are there >> clones available for hire? >> >> > The closest thing to my clone is still 8 years old. Have not yet found a > way to accelerate aging. > > Accelerated aging only applies to the parents, not the kids. While you are getting older faster, your kids only appear to you to be aging faster. I do not think I will let this coding project go that long. Thanks for your replies and I will get started on porting my stuff using qtbase. And I might as well add that I feel like I owe you an enormous thanks for all your work on all the packages I use, from IRanges to rtracklayer, as well as the Qt-based packages. It has been a steep learning curve, but we are well underway now processing our Chip-seq data in R. When I started these projects about 10 years ago, none of this infrastructure was in place. Michael > > Thanks >> jiaco >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Qtinterfaces-devel mailing list >> Qtinterfaces-devel at lists.r-forge.r-project.org >> >> https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/qtinterfaces-devel >> > > -- Jason S. Iacovoni Bioinformatic Plateau 05.61.32.56.18 INSERM / UNIVERSITE PAUL SABATIER UMR 1048 Institut des Maladies M?taboliques et Cardiovasculaires (I2MC) Building L4, Room 106 1 avenue Jean Poulh?s - BP 84225 31432 Toulouse Cedex 4 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: