Gui4Cli is a simple interpreted script language which allows you to easily construct great
looking GUIs and through them form command lines which you can send to other programs or
to the OS for execution. It also has many inbuilt abilities such as math evaluation, file
directory listviews, database capabilities, DOS functions and much more. The PC version
has many more additions like treeviews, drag&drop and much more.
According to me (always a great source of wisdom :), in
most programs the GUI is a completely different part of the program and nothing to do with
what the program is actually supposed to do. Some programs would even be better off with
no GUI at all, since that would make them more flexible. Lately though, fashion has it
that a program must have a GUI, otherwise it is considered 2nd class and snorted at
by people in the know.
Used to be that the command line was a
very powerfull tool.
A command line is still a very powerful tool. It is all that
programs need to make them work. It's us who have changed. Now though, with Gui4Cli, the
GUI is independent from the program and is very easily made and changed. There is no
longer any need for the program to interface with the system.
This has a lot of advantages, such as :
- Cross-Platform Compatibility since the GUI code,
messaging system etc, which is the most system dependent code of most programs is rendered
obsolete.
- System Compatibility since the program which is
written for say WB 1.3 or DOS, can have new look menus, windows, gadgets etc, because
these are rendered by Gui4Cli, independently.
- Smaller & faster code since a big chunk of code,
writen for the benefit of having a GUI, need no longer be included in the binary, making
the program smaller and thus faster to load, let alone write... specially if you want a
resizable, font sensitive, super-dupper GUI...
- Guaranteed Intuitive since it can easily be changed
by the user to fit his method of operation..
- More Usefull since you can leave it to the user to
decide on how to use it best.
Seems to me that you can have your cake and eat it too....
Features (Amiga version) :
- Open unlimited windows of various types, simultaneously
- Visually Edit the guis while they are running..
- Windows can be resizable & have colorful backgrounds
- The GUIs can be changed dynamically - while running.
- File-Manager like and Database ListViews
- Mathematical expression evaluation
- Use icons & datatype images
- Use Appicons, Appmenus and Appwindows
- Various Font and Graphics commands
- Can open/close screens
- Recursive DOS commands and other weird stuff
- Keyboard shortcuts for gadgets, menus, jumping screens etc
- Much more...
- And an easy interpreted script language to do it all with..
The PC Version has even more stuff..
How to use it :
1. Install Gui4Cli (manually or with the installation GUI provided)
2. Visually create & thereafter Edit with a text editor a Gui4Cli gui (super-easy
stuff)
3. Load the GUI into Gui4Cli
4. Sit back, watch the GUI, move the gadgets around, make an other one...
No Compilers, Libraries or programming knowledge is required. Just a text editor, a
little common sence and an active imagination. It's so simple it makes your lower lip
shiver with anticipation and your heart flutter with overwhelming joy at the very thought
of ... (I'm over-doing this, aren't I ?)
Anyway, Gui4Cli offers you many commands, such as if/endif, docase, dowhile, gosub
constructs, commands to control other Guis, to send DOS and ARexx commands, open/close
screens, set fonts, draw simple graphics, do built-in DOS commands and more..
What to use it for :
Customizing your workbench/desktop :
Use it to make a program launcher GUI of your own liking, make GUIs for other actions you
do regularly, or.. well you decide.. You can make almost anything with a little
imagination.
Make GUIs for CLI based programs :
Many great programs do not have GUIs and some of those which have give you a hell of a lot
of options you don't need and leave out the ones you do need. With Gui4Cli, you can make a
GUI for CLI programs just the way you want it or combine GUIs of many programs in the same
window.
Make GUIs for ARexx capable programs :
ARexx (on the amiga) is great! Only you have to write scripts in the ARexx language and
attach them to some cryptic menu item of the ARexx capapble program you want to use them
on or RX them from a shell. With Gui4Cli, using ARexx commands is as easy as using
AmigaDOS commands. All you have to know is what they are and set them out in a GUI, the
way you want them. It can add a lot of functionality to a lot of programs.
Make Gui4Cli applications :
Gui4Cli has now developed to where you can do a hell of a lot with just the language
itself, without any other external programs. You can make a *full* singing dancing file
manager, a accounts database, a calculator, a clock, an image viewer.. whatever.
Why use it anyway ? :
Well, since Gui4Cli GUIs are made from simple text scripts, you can make them and
change them very easily.
You can also combine GUIs of many programs into one (say mod & graphics players
together).
If you write small utilities, you can write them without startup code and without
system wait-for-input loops, since the GUI is separate from the program. Just get on with
writing the program and leave all the boring stuff out of it.
Using ARexx, you can make your GUIs interact with the program, if that's what you need.
If memory is a problem, keep in mind that with Gui4Cli only the GUIs are loaded - the
programs themselves are loaded only when they are needed.
A lot of other reasons I haven't thought of yet :)...
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