Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Announcements, requests and support regarding SkIndigo - the Sketchup / Indigo exporter.
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neo0.
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Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by neo0. » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:55 pm

As people here know, my knowledge of coding is basically zero. :)

Have there been any thoughts about switching from HTML to C++ or something? In my mind, there would be many benefits like :
  • No more red x as placeholders for material previews (you can have much more control over the UIs visualdesign.) No more hard edged square buttons!
    [*']Much more functional flexability. Customizable hotkeys, docking/undocking, widgets, etc. Maybe even combining interactive and visual elements (like adding pause/play buttons over the material preview.)
  • Animated UI!
Last edited by neo0. on Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Borgleader
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by Borgleader » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:09 pm

Well for one, by looking at the files (in the latest Skindigo.zip) the code for exporting mesh & such seems to be written in Ruby? (not HTML, that's only the interface part of it, as far as I could tell). There's also the issue of linking the exporter to Sketchup. I'm unfamiliar with it but if it's like blender it won't be able to "communicate" with a script written in any language. (after a bit of research it seems it only allows Ruby http://code.google.com/apis/sketchup/)

And even if it did, it would probably mean Whaat would have to learn to code in C++ which is no small task. ("Fun fact" I've bought the book for my "Procedural Programming" class in Uni which is an intro to programmin in C++ and its 650 pages long).

As for the visual stuff, well I guess it's just a matter of finding the right application to create the interface.
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neo0.
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by neo0. » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:12 pm

Well, I meant changing the UI. The actual exporter could be written in any language..

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Borgleader
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by Borgleader » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:14 pm

neo0. wrote:Well, I meant changing the UI. The actual exporter could be written in any language..
Well I'm no coding experter (yet) but hmm it would be a matter of integrating the ruby code into something else than HTML. And I'm unsure which other possibility(ies) there are.
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Whaat
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by Whaat » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:27 pm

I assure you that the HTML interface is here to stay. All of those UI requests that you mention in the first post can be done with HTML and javascript. The UI will continue to improve over time as my knowledge of HTML and javascript increases.

Also, I am sure that benn will be helping to improve the UI as his knowledge in javascript is much greater than mine.

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Borgleader
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by Borgleader » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:27 pm

Whaat wrote:I assure you that the HTML interface is here to stay. All of those UI requests that you mention in the first post can be done with HTML and javascript. The UI will continue to improve over time as my knowledge of HTML and javascript increases.

Also, I am sure that benn will be helping to improve the UI as his knowledge in javascript is much greater than mine.
Well I guess everyone will be happy then! :D
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benn
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Re: Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question

Post by benn » Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:56 pm

Exactly what Dale said. Stop trolling neo0 ;D

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