+1 to ability to launch external editor, closest route to pleasing everyone, least licensing issues :)
Basically this usually works by saving the current text of the component to a temp file, then sending that to the external editor, then the user edits the file as they like, eventually saving the file, which ideally should re-load it in Taverna. I'm not sure how an application that has launched another gets a message that the other application is done. An intermediate way would be to have the user manually 're-load' the temp file into the component. Perhaps even cooler, and basically the same code, would be an ability to use 'script hooks', as in TextMate on Mac OS X, so that I could do something like top and tail the component with code that lets me compile/run the component code in Eclipse (or TextMate or R), even writing it into unit tests or similar. --J On 27 Mar 2009, at 11:25 AM, Andrea Wiggins wrote: > > On Mar 27, 2009, at 5:25 AM, taverna-users- > [email protected] wrote: > >> It is certainly possible to launch an external editor e.g. Eclipse >> does it - sometimes when I don't want it to :-) Parts of Taverna, >> such >> as the command line local worker, already run external programs. It >> sounds do-able. >> >> There are at least two types of service that allow script editing - R >> and the beanshell. Whatever is done for one should probably be done >> for the other(s) as well. > > Agreed. Consistency in the application behavior for script editing is > definitely desirable. 1.71 is not consistent in this respect, at least > on the Mac. > >> Would users generally prefer an external editor or to use a built-in >> one? > > Everyone else will have to weigh in on that one. > > From a usability perspective, a basic built-in editor with the option > to set a preference to launch an external text editor (or trigger it > manually, perhaps?) would meet the broadest set of needs. I can > imagine reasons that people might want either, or the option of > switching based on task. Of course, that's more complicated to > implement and maintain. > > I would generally be happy with launching an external text editor > myself. It might occasionally seem like a nuisance when I only need to > change one character in a script, but would definitely be an > acceptable tradeoff for the way I use Taverna. > >> Using an external editor would be less work, long term, for Taverna >> people to support. > > Indeed - it might generally be a more reliable solution as well, since > there's a basic text editor built into every operating system I've > ever encountered. I'm thinking in particular of managing dependencies > because I repeatedly run into problems with that for R; a single > package update causes headaches every so often. > > Thanks! > > Andrea > > > Andrea Wiggins > PhD Student, School of Information Studies > Syracuse University > > 337 Hinds Hall > Syracuse, NY 13244 > [email protected] > www.andreawiggins.com > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > taverna-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/taverna-users > Documentation: http://www.mygrid.org.uk/usermanual1.7/ > FAQ: http://www.mygrid.org.uk/wiki/Mygrid/TavernaFaq > Biological Services: > http://www.mygrid.org.uk/wiki/Mygrid/BiologicalWebServices > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ taverna-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/taverna-users Documentation: http://www.mygrid.org.uk/usermanual1.7/ FAQ: http://www.mygrid.org.uk/wiki/Mygrid/TavernaFaq Biological Services: http://www.mygrid.org.uk/wiki/Mygrid/BiologicalWebServices
