[Discuss] tool to make GUI based on shell script

[John Blomfield]

xxx xxx wrote:
> On Nov 6, 2007 10:54 PM, John Blomfield <jabfield at shaw.ca> wrote:
>   
>> xxx xxx wrote:
>>     
>
> To some extends you are right. But it is not just limited within a GUI
> application based on cdrecord. I write shell script often to simplify
> command based tasks. Hence I am searching for a way to add GUI
> interface to my shell scripts because a shell script has the power to
> call the linux commands directly ( here cdrecord) Now it can be a GUI
> for a script which can do Cd writing or some thing else. Thanks for
> the hints you have given regarding python. If I go for python it would
> take some time as I have never used it before but I am quite familiar
> with shell scripts hence I can immediately start with any tool which
> can make GUI of shell-scripts. I have intensionally skipped
> Kdeveloper; Qt etc.. as those are resource hungry. Honestly speaking I
> like eye candy things but give priority to those tools which can do
> the exact job in a simple way. Like shell scripts.
> Thanks
>
>   
Yes, scripts are great for small jobs but if your GUI interface grows 
you may find interpreter based scripts eating up the resources also.  I 
believe that there may be some compilers being written for Python that 
may help solve that problem by producing a binary executable.  If you 
are running KDE then the Qt libraries are already there in the 
background so any executable you produce will be highly resource 
efficient, similarly with Gnome and gtk libraries.  Incidentally, you 
can call Linux commands directly from within a Qt executable.  i.e. 
start command processes from within the executable, pass arguments to 
them and redirect their stdout and stderr output to the GUI.  Qt4 now 
also allows you to pipe between two external process and redirect to 
files, what it can't do is interpret scripting syntax.  But what I have 
done to over come this short coming is to make the GUI executable write 
a script on a temporary file, run it from the GUI and when I'm done with 
it, delete it.  The benefit of this is that you only have to have one 
file to worry about (the executable) that contains everything i.e. does 
not depend on any script files that can get misplaced.

I guess its all a question of balance!  I use Linux's excellent terminal 
commands to do many things and also write simple scripts but many Linux 
commands have hundreds of options that you never need and if used 
infrequently are easy to forget.  Then you have to plough through a man 
page trying to find the options you need.  If you write a script to 
limit the number of options you still have to provide an argument list 
or use a boring question and answer menu interaction approach.  My 
solution in this case is to write a GUI dialog program with a list of 
check boxes and/or buttons that can be selected for the various options 
I might be interested in and possibly show some output or error messages.

John Blomfield
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