
Hi Jorge,
This is exa from #kde :)
Hi again :)
Using stdin/stdout with ASCII first would be certainly easier. All you have to do is to define some GUI commands. Then if you convert to some binary interface, you could again use either pipes or sockets.
Yes, I'll start with simple stdin/stdout first.
I'd referred to this function on irc, but anyway. In posix category.
createNamedPipe :: FilePath -> FileMode -> IO ()
Yeap, you did, and I thought it was so easy to remember that I didn't copy/paste... :) Then I forgot and couldn't find it in the Posix "input and output" section, so I wondered if you had actually told me about createPipe (it was in the file and directories section)
createNamedPipe fifo mode calls mkfifo to create a new named pipe, fifo, with permissions based on mode.
And of course you could create that fifo externally with a shell script if you'd like and run stuff from there. I'd almost certainly make it run over stdin/stdout on second thought. You do the connection externally as Sengan says. Create the pipes. fork the program. connect the stdin/stdout of child to your pipes. I think he did it writing C code, but you could also do it using bash, right?
#! /bin/sh mkfifo input mkfifo output app <input >output & guifrontend >input
mmm it is a nice idea too :) anyway I don't know if using the same output for both, interactive shell and gui, is the best option, I'll have to give it some more thought.
Since you will be using KDE, you don't have to worry too much about Windows. Unless of course one day you want to port it. :) Then you might consider writing another such GUI using MFC with Visual C++. And make it an ActiveX component, get it signed by MS, etc, etc. Or, alternatively port a large portion of KDE to windows.
Regards,
I think I'll stick to Linux and maybe other *nixes for now :) Thanks for all the ideas, J.A.