On Jan 31, 2010, at 10:29 PM, Andy Somogyi wrote:

> Hello All
> 
> Here is a link to a prototype sage desktop app for the Mac.
> 
> http://numerator.sourceforge.net/SageApp.dmg
> 
> This is a first prototype, it has little functionality currently, will 
> probably crash, almost certainly has numerous memory leaks, and is FAR, FAR, 
> FAR from complete, but it is a START. 
> 
> Note, I am very happy to maintain and update this for the long term. 

Excellent.  I wasn't willing to write something from scratch and maintain it 
(I'm not interested in writing a web browser), which is why I tried to build 
something off of Platypus and Fluidium instead.  But if you are willing to 
create a custom application it will almost certainly turn out better in the 
long run.

> Eventually, I want to have something that behaves similarly to the 
> Mathematica desktop, and I think this is certainly possible with a 
> Javascript/HTML5 based UI hosted in a set of WebKit views, and wrapped in a 
> nice Cocoa app. The backed end / server is 100% cross platform, the client 
> fits in nicely with the native desktop. It would be fairly simple for Windows 
> person to come up with a Windows type app like this, and same for Linux / GTK 
> person. 
> 
> So, try it out, let me know what features you would like to see. 


To me I think one of the most important things is to have an application that 
comes with the "batteries included" i.e. you just download the application, 
move it wherever you want and launch it.  This is not so much because I 
personally want it that way, but I think we need to have as low a barrier to 
playing with Sage as possible (that's why so much work is put into making it 
"just build" on all supported platforms).  As a mac user I am wary of long 
installation instructions if I just want to try something out.  Several times I 
have downloaded an application, but never used it simply because it had an 
installer.  Getting this to work is well understood however and it should be a 
cinch to switch your application for the one distributed with sage now and just 
create a binary distribution.

As for other features that I would like to see, well I could probably go on and 
on:

Tabs would be nice, as well as a location bar, so that I can surf to trac and 
such.

Support for userscripts (a la greasekit) and custom css.

Ability to reopen the console once I have closed it (and probably have it 
closed by default--would need a splash screen though).

Shortcuts in the location bar so that "t problem" will search trac for 
"problem" etc.

Some method of telling you that there is an update to Sage and make updating 
easy.

Opening sws and pdf files and "doing the right thing".

Editing cells and/or notebooks in an external editor.

etc. etc.

I'm not telling you this to discourage you, but just to get some ideas going.  
I'm willing to help where I can.  It shouldn't be hard to do better than what 
we currently have (I'm allowed to say that since I'm the one who created it).  
Perhaps we should put ideas up on the wiki.  Certainly 
http://wiki.sagemath.org/SageMacApplication needs to be updated but it is 
apparently an "Immutable Page".

-Ivan

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