wxruby users - Nov 2004 - [Fwd: Weft - a free open-source QDA tool]

Hi

Just released a first version of the WxRuby project I''ve been working 
on. Firstly, I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this list who''s 
helped at various points over the past year - every time I ran into a 
problem someone jumped in with advice.

A very brief explanation of the app - I''m a sociologist/anthropologist 
by trade, and the app is intended for use in social research projects 
where you have a body of text documents to analyse, for example 
transcripts of interviews. The app helps in developing an analysis by 
letting you mark up sections of text in different documents as relating 
to a common theme or topic.

Anyway, I guess it''s of more interest to this group as an example of a 
good-sized app written using WxRuby. There''s probably a few thousand 
lines of Ruby in there. The cross-platform aspect isn''t perfect yet, as
I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do have one - 
anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC in reverse?).

The main page is at

http://www.pressure.to/qda/

This has a windows installler for the app; source code is also available 
for download - follow the link for "not windows".

Cheers
alex

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Weft - a free open-source QDA tool
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:54:57 +0000
From: alex fenton <alex@PRESSURE.TO>
Reply-To: qual-software <QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
To: QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Hi

I''m pleased to announce a preview release of Weft QDA - a free,
open-source software tool for qualitative data analysis. There''s
further
information and downloads at

http://www.pressure.to/qda/

The tool was originally written for use in my MSc research project on
credit unions in South London, submitted to the University of Surrey
this summer. The intention was to create a simple interface for the
generic "code-and-retrieve" activity in qualitative data analysis.
It''s
been modififed to make it easier to install and use elsewhere, and I
hope it might now be of use to others.

I would very much welcome comments and suggestions for new features.
Working full-time now, my time for developing the software is somewhat
limited at present. However, I''m committed to fixing any problems that
emerge and implementing new features as possible.

Cheers
Alex Fenton

alex fenton wrote:
> Hi
>
> Just released a first version of the WxRuby project I''ve been
working
> on. Firstly, I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this list who''s
> helped at various points over the past year - every time I ran into a 
> problem someone jumped in with advice.
>
> A very brief explanation of the app - I''m a
sociologist/anthropologist
> by trade, and the app is intended for use in social research projects 
> where you have a body of text documents to analyse, for example 
> transcripts of interviews. The app helps in developing an analysis by 
> letting you mark up sections of text in different documents as 
> relating to a common theme or topic.
>
> Anyway, I guess it''s of more interest to this group as an example
of a
> good-sized app written using WxRuby. There''s probably a few
thousand
> lines of Ruby in there. The cross-platform aspect isn''t perfect
yet,
> as I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do have
one -
> anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC in 
> reverse?).
>
> The main page is at
>
> http://www.pressure.to/qda/
>
> This has a windows installler for the app; source code is also 
> available for download - follow the link for "not windows".
>
> Cheers
> alex
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Weft - a free open-source QDA tool
> Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:54:57 +0000
> From: alex fenton <alex@PRESSURE.TO>
> Reply-To: qual-software <QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
> To: QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>
> Hi
>
> I''m pleased to announce a preview release of Weft QDA - a free,
> open-source software tool for qualitative data analysis. There''s
further
> information and downloads at
>
> http://www.pressure.to/qda/
>
> The tool was originally written for use in my MSc research project on
> credit unions in South London, submitted to the University of Surrey
> this summer. The intention was to create a simple interface for the
> generic "code-and-retrieve" activity in qualitative data
analysis. It''s
> been modififed to make it easier to install and use elsewhere, and I
> hope it might now be of use to others.
>
> I would very much welcome comments and suggestions for new features.
> Working full-time now, my time for developing the software is somewhat
> limited at present. However, I''m committed to fixing any problems
that
> emerge and implementing new features as possible.
>
> Cheers
> Alex Fenton
>
First comment: Very, very very very cool! Thank you for sharing this 
post. I find this post rather inspiring since I''ve been stuck doing
alot
of Java Swing programming in the past few months.

Here are some constructive suggestions. I do not know much about the 
field this tool was built for so please take these suggestions with a 
grain of salt.:

1 - In the documents section, should there be a grouping of documents? I 
see you have "diary-january", "diary-february", etc...Should
these have
the ability to be grouped in a Tree structure where you would end up 
with something like:
    Diary
       - January
       - February
       - March
       - etc...
    People
       - Ade
       - Lauara
       - etc...
    Generic / Misc.  
       - document1
       - document2

2. I notice in one of the screenshotss that it shows multiple documents 
in a single window (jump-to-context.png). You have 
"michael[40435-40824]" and "diary-march[3858-4114]". What
are the
numbers? Should the numbers be listed in the original ListBox next to 
the name of the document? Would it be helpful if the ListBox had 
different sorting options? (Alphabetically and possibly by number in 
ascending/descending order?)

3. Are the categories the same for each document, or do these changed 
based on the document? Would it be nice if there was a way to 
graphically see what documents are linked to which categories....(Is 
there a one-to-many relationship or many-to-many relationship between 
documents and categories)?

Just thinking outloud because you asked for feedback. ;)

Zach

Zach

Zach Dennis wrote:
> First comment: Very, very very very cool! Thank you for sharing this 
> post. I find this post rather inspiring since I''ve been stuck
doing alot
> of Java Swing programming in the past few months.
Thanks. Working in WxRuby has generally been great (I switched from Fox 
about 12 months ago). The API''s fine to work with and fitted well with 
my ruby coding style elsewhere. I''ll cross-post to c.l.r. as I hope it 
shows that even though it''s still not stable, WxRuby is very usable 
(only once has a version change caused me any probs).
> Here are some constructive suggestions. I do not know much about the 
> field this tool was built for so please take these suggestions with a 
> grain of salt.:
Nope, really useful, thanks. Apologies if I get too field-geeky!
> 1 - In the documents section, should there be a grouping of documents? I 
> see you have "diary-january", "diary-february",
etc...Should these have
> the ability to be grouped in a Tree structure where you would end up 
> with something like:
>    Diary
>       - January
>       - February
>       - March
>       - etc...
>    People
>       - Ade
>       - Lauara
>       - etc...
>    Generic / Misc.        - document1
>       - document2
yup, I think this is a better way to organise it. Thanks for the 
suggestion. I hope there''s a Wx folder icon somewhere.
> 2. I notice in one of the screenshotss that it shows multiple documents 
> in a single window (jump-to-context.png). You have 
> "michael[40435-40824]" and "diary-march[3858-4114]".
What are the
> numbers? Should the numbers be listed in the original ListBox next to 
> the name of the document? Would it be helpful if the ListBox had 
> different sorting options? (Alphabetically and possibly by number in 
> ascending/descending order?)
the numbers correspond to the character position within the source 
document that the extract is from (a string offset, really). There''s 
probably a more meaningful way to put this - maybe percentage of the way 
through the source document.
> 3. Are the categories the same for each document, or do these changed 
> based on the document? Would it be nice if there was a way to 
> graphically see what documents are linked to which categories....(Is 
> there a one-to-many relationship or many-to-many relationship between 
> documents and categories)?
Each category can potentially mark any section of any document. Every 
category has none or more vectors, substrings of documents that are 
associated with that category. But being able to see the 
document-to-category relationships is important too (in the field), but 
not possible at the moment.

I wanted to do this by using text backgrounds to highlight sections of 
documents, but wx::TextAttr background colours don''t seem to work for
me
on Windows, only on Linux (wxruby 0.5.0). Don''t suppose
anyone''s had any
joy ...
> Just thinking outloud because you asked for feedback. ;)
:)
cheers
alex
> Zach
> 
> _______________________________________________
> wxruby-users mailing list
> wxruby-users@rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wxruby-users
> 
>

> I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do have one
-
> anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC in reverse?).
Off topic:

It''s easy. You should run VNC server on the linux and use the VNC
viewer from your windows. Look for TightVNC for a good client & server
implementation.

If you want something better (and have no objection to Cygwin), try this:
* MSWin - Install cygwin X11 libraries (all)
* Linux - enable the GDM (Gnome Desktop) XDMCP. They way I always
remeber how to do it is by looking for gdm.conf somewhere under /etc
then finding the first "Enable" in the file (which should be under the
XDMCP section) and setting it to true. You''ll need to restart the gdm
process.
* from cygwin run ''xwin -query <linux host> &'' and
you should get the
gnome desktop :-)

HTH.

Awesome! Always good to see new projects take shape!

Nick

alex fenton wrote:
> Hi
>
> Just released a first version of the WxRuby project I''ve been
working
> on. Firstly, I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this list who''s
> helped at various points over the past year - every time I ran into a 
> problem someone jumped in with advice.
>
> A very brief explanation of the app - I''m a
sociologist/anthropologist
> by trade, and the app is intended for use in social research projects 
> where you have a body of text documents to analyse, for example 
> transcripts of interviews. The app helps in developing an analysis by 
> letting you mark up sections of text in different documents as 
> relating to a common theme or topic.
>
> Anyway, I guess it''s of more interest to this group as an example
of a
> good-sized app written using WxRuby. There''s probably a few
thousand
> lines of Ruby in there. The cross-platform aspect isn''t perfect
yet,
> as I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do have
one -
> anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC in 
> reverse?).
>
> The main page is at
>
> http://www.pressure.to/qda/
>
> This has a windows installler for the app; source code is also 
> available for download - follow the link for "not windows".
>
> Cheers
> alex
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Weft - a free open-source QDA tool
> Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:54:57 +0000
> From: alex fenton <alex@PRESSURE.TO>
> Reply-To: qual-software <QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
> To: QUAL-SOFTWARE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>
> Hi
>
> I''m pleased to announce a preview release of Weft QDA - a free,
> open-source software tool for qualitative data analysis. There''s
further
> information and downloads at
>
> http://www.pressure.to/qda/
>
> The tool was originally written for use in my MSc research project on
> credit unions in South London, submitted to the University of Surrey
> this summer. The intention was to create a simple interface for the
> generic "code-and-retrieve" activity in qualitative data
analysis. It''s
> been modififed to make it easier to install and use elsewhere, and I
> hope it might now be of use to others.
>
> I would very much welcome comments and suggestions for new features.
> Working full-time now, my time for developing the software is somewhat
> limited at present. However, I''m committed to fixing any problems
that
> emerge and implementing new features as possible.
>
> Cheers
> Alex Fenton
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> wxruby-users mailing list
> wxruby-users@rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wxruby-users
>
>
>

Assaph (Assaph) Mehr wrote:
>
> > I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do have
one -
> > anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC
> in reverse?).
>
> Off topic:
>
> It''s easy. You should run VNC server on the linux and use the VNC
> viewer from your windows. Look for TightVNC for a good client & server
> implementation.
I used to use TightVNC (which I liked a lot), but now I use UltraVNC (I
think its on SourceForge) -- check it out, its much better than TightVNC.

Curt

Curt Hibbs wrote:
>Assaph (Assaph) Mehr wrote:
>  
>
>>>I don''t have a Linux box with a monitor to test on (I do
have one -
>>>anyway I can view its desktop on my Windows machine? Like VNC
>>>      
>>>
>>in reverse?).
>>
>>Off topic:
>>
>>It''s easy. You should run VNC server on the linux and use the
VNC
>>viewer from your windows. Look for TightVNC for a good client &
server
>>implementation.
>>    
>>
>
>I used to use TightVNC (which I liked a lot), but now I use UltraVNC (I
>think its on SourceForge) -- check it out, its much better than TightVNC.
>  
>
Curt,

I have pretty much exclusively used RealVNC for the past 2 years. Have 
you used it? If so, what comparisons would you make between UltraVNC, 
TightVNC and RealVNC? I have neve rused the first two. Thanks,

Zach

Zach Dennis wrote:
>
> Curt Hibbs wrote:
>
> >I used to use TightVNC (which I liked a lot), but now I use UltraVNC (I
> >think its on SourceForge) -- check it out, its much better than
TightVNC.
> >
> >
> Curt,
>
> I have pretty much exclusively used RealVNC for the past 2 years. Have
> you used it? If so, what comparisons would you make between UltraVNC,
> TightVNC and RealVNC? I have neve rused the first two. Thanks,
I started off with the original open source VNC. Later I started using
TightVNC because it featured better compression of the data stream. TightVNC
was usable in low bandwidth situations where regular VNC was impossible to
use. Then the original developers of VNC took the codebase proprietary
called it RealVNC and released a free edition and an enterprise edition.

UltraVNC is a fork of TightVNC (on which development had stagnated) and is
at:
   http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

It is very fast, features really useful things like desktop scaling, file
transfer, dynamic bandwidth adjustment (for example, it will automatically
down-switch to 8-bit color if it detects slow transfer rate). Also, it has a
special video driver you can install for even faster performance (at least
on windows).

I''ve never used RealVNC. But I took a quick look at the feature lists, 
and
it looks like the free UltraVNC has more features than the commercial
RealVNC Enterprise:

UltraVNC Key Features (from their web page):

* File Transfer with intuitive Graphical User Interface
* Optional Video Driver for high speed and low CPU
  (W2000/XP/2003), Ddi hooking (Win 9.x)
* NT Domain and Active Directory based security
* High speed and performances over LAN connections.
* Very good responsivness over slow connections (cable,
  modem)
* Embedded Client/Server Text Chat
* Optional Data Stream Enrcryption Plugin
* Viewer with Auto Configuration, Quick Options and Auto
  Scaling
* Standard Win32 Viewer and JavaViewer connections over
  TCP/IP
* Supported Operating Systems: Win9x/NT4/Win2000/XP/2003
* Viewer Toolbar and Hot keys
* View Modes: Full-Screen, Scaled and Windowed
* Viewer Status Window
* Dynamic Single Window/Full Desktop view switching
* Backward Compatible with others VNC flavors.
* Support for 32/24/16/8 bits colors
* Server''s Desktop dynamic resolution switching
* Server Screen Blanking/mouse locking from viewer side
* Bandwidth Saving technologies : Bitmap Cache management,
  server screen scaling
* Possibility to send Ctrl-Alt-Del to the remote server

Hope this helps!

Curt