[TriEmbed] Development language for simple "GUI" window program

[Adam Haile]

Unfortunately, it looks like they removed WinForms support in Xamarin
Studio :(

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 12:42 PM, <jonjwolfe at anibit.com> wrote:

> FWIW, Windows.Forms *does* work decently under mono on OSX and Linux. I
> have never tested elaborate or sophisticated UI's in Winforms/mono, but
> basic one's work well. The thing to watch out for is anything in C# where
> you use "P/invoke", which is the way in .Net to cheat and make calls into
> the underlying OS. Those are not going to work in Mono. Custom controls and
> digging deep into the Windows messaging loop are two things that often
> require p/invoke calls, so if your app doesn't use those, it should be
> fine. I have even verified that C# console applications work under mono on
> Raspian. I think I also tested Winforms on the pi, but I cannot remember
> for sure. My UI framework of choice, WPF, is not at all supported under
> mono, but given that Microsoft has recently open-sourced many crucial parts
> of the .Net framework that weren't already open source, I am hopeful that
> support will come one day in the not too distant future.
>
> I agree with Adam, it does sound like python/pyserial is the way to go if
> you want easy cross platform, I have used it too.
>
> I have researched a lot of options for UI's in Python, and it seems like a
> lot of it is done in either tkinter or gtk. I'm personally leaning toward
> tkinter because it's very commonly included with Python, so there is not
> additional setup.
>
> If you know neither Python nor C#, and only need Windows support, and have
> ever done any C/C++/Java, then C# with Windows.Forms is probably the
> fastest way to get something up and running quickly with minimal learning
> curve. Google "Visual Studio 2013 Express for Windows Desktop" or "Visual
> Studio 2013 community". Both are free, royalty free, and free for most
> commercial use(within certain limits). Express is smaller to download and
> install, but has been replaced by the more featured "Community" edition.
>
> --Jon
>
>
> On 2015-02-10 11:14, Adam Haile wrote:
>
>> Fred,
>> I had to research the same thing when developing the AllPixel. It
>> doesn't use an FTDI chip since the ATMega32u4 we used has CDC USB
>> Serial, but as far as the OS is concerned, it's just serial like FTDI.
>>
>> First major question that will change my answer is what OS support you
>> need?
>> Because I needed to support any OS on any architecture, I went with
>> Python (2.7.x) and pyserial which is a pure python, cross-OS serial
>> interface.
>> However, the UI components of Python are lacking. There's a plethora
>> of windowing packages but I've never been super happy with any of
>> them. So, if you just need something simple and a command line
>> interface would work, I would definitely recommend the pyserial/Python
>> route.
>>
>> If, for example, you just need Windows support, I can certainly
>> recommend C# which has built in serial functionality. With a little
>> work and the use of Mono it should even work cross-OS. But if you do
>> need that, _start_ with Mono since you will really need to use GTK#
>> instead of WinForms or WPF that are the Windows C# defaults but _don't
>> _work in Mono so much.
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 8:35 AM, Fred Ebeling
>> <FEbeling at ecpdesigns.com> wrote:
>>
>>  HI
>>>
>>> I am developing a simple controller unit that interfaces to the
>>> computer using a USB FTDI IC. What I need is a simple support
>>> language that would allow me to program some text and select
>>> some options and then send commands to the controller.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions:
>>>
>>> Fred Ebeling
>>>
>>
>>
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>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org
>>
>
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