Preview of Ubuntu Quickly
28 October, 2009
I wanted to write a review of Canonical's desktop development tool, Quickly, but due to several issues I can only do somewhat of a preview.
To start developing with Quickly, you need a pretty healthy Internet connection. On a clean install of Karmic 9.10 Beta running in VirtualBox, sudo apt-get install quickly pulled down approximately 214MB of packages.
Quickly uses commands such as "quickly new <name of project>" or quickly dialog <name> to execute the fundamentals of application building. As a Griffonite, it feels very similar to paradigms I'm used to.
Though it failed partway through, the package command seemed to create a Debian package for the created app. Running apt-get upgrade didn't totally solve the problem, it only made the process fail later.
Some other highlights:
- Python under the covers
- Has built-in support for Launchpad
- Glade for user interface layout
- Couchdb for persistence
Conclusion:
I like the concept but it didn't feel fully baked. Integration with CouchDB for object persistence was a nice touch. All too often, persistence is a second thought that has to strapped on adhoc after the fact. Glade, a design tool for GNOME UIs, was a good way to dogfood what was already on the Ubuntu/GNOME platform and reduce the barrier to entry. Though the stated goal is to make Ubuntu apps quickly and easily, Python is not a Ubuntu only language. I would have liked some option to send an app to a friend on OS X or Windows and that doesn't seem possible yet. Griffon, on the other hand, is mostly platform agnostic.
Launchpad is great if you are an Ubuntu dev but a lot of folks have sweat equity invested in Github or a personal SVN repo. I feel that forcing them on Launchpad/bzr might not be the best option. FYI I love bzr as a VCS. Python isn't my cup of tea personally but it makes sense in their ecosystem.
I applaud Canonical for this first effort which I must state again is probably not the final version. I know from my experience with Griffon how hard it is to put out a well-designed rock solid project.
Comments
- Chris Lees said: Glade seems to be reasonably good (it gets a lot of use and it's mature by now) but I feel the Ubuntu developers could lower the barrier of entry even more by adopting something like Pythoncard. Obviously Pythoncard needs so much work that this might not be practical, but with Pc you can place widgets without having to worry about creating grids all the time. It's also a bit easier to get to grips with than Glade. I think the purpose of Quickly is to help out developers who have never programmed on Linux before; they probably don't already have Git or SVN set up. In any case, it must be possible to put your files into your own version control system anyway. I look forward to seeing a bunch of new nicely-coded, nicely designed, nicely-integrated programs from new developers appearing in the Ubuntu Software Center for Lucid :-)
