Hello Fellow Developers,
PaulMcNett and I have been collaborating on a new 3-tier framework for creating cross-platform, data-aware applications. While it is still quite alpha, we decided to go ahead and announce it to get a feel for what level of interest it would gather.
The product's name is Dabo, and it will let you create data-aware desktop apps for distribution to Mac, Linux, Unix, and Windows computers. We've brought over a lot of what we like about VFP, and think that it may appeal to VFP developers which is why I'm posting this announcement here. While nothing can ever replace VFP, it is our goal to provide a tool that is familiar enough to VFP developers who either need to or want to be able to develop and support cross-platform apps.
Attached is the text of the complete announcement, but it is kind of long. Please visit us at:
and if interested in Dabo, consider joining one or both of our mailing lists:
http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-users
http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-dev
Only join the dev list if you think you want to participate in dabo's development, or monitor the daily source code commit traffic and ensuing discussion.
Thanks!
-- EdLeafe
May 11, 2004
Announcing Dabo 0.1
Dabo is a Python module that provides a true 3-tier desktop application framework. It separates the three main parts of a desktop app: database access, user interface and business logic. You would typically use Dabo to develop graphical, data-aware desktop applications.
Both the database layer and the UI layer can be used independently from the rest of Dabo. In fact, we have endeavored to make the Dabo classes much simpler to work with than the underlying UI systems they are based on. But the real strength comes with using Dabo as your entire framework, complete with the dApp application object.
Dabo, since it is written in Python, runs on Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows (all flavors).
Dabo is very early in its development, so the choices for database and UI are limited at the moment. Currently, the only supported database backend is MySQL, and the only supported user interface library is wxPython. However, the system was designed from the beginning to be able to support any database or UI; all it will take is some time and effort. In the near future, all popular databases will be supported, including PostgreSQL, Oracle, Berkeley DB and MS-SQL. There is also no reason that other that other UI libraries, such as PyQt?, TkInter?, Curses, PyObjC, and even HTTP can work with Dabo.
One of the key factors in the evolution of Dabo will be the contribution of the community. If you have a database or UI library you'd like supported, we'd love to add your contributions to the product! The key to any Open Source project is the involvement and development of a community, and Dabo is no different.
Dabo is a dual-licensed open source project. You may download it and use it for free under the GPL, which would allow you to distribute it for free with your GPL projects, or you may purchase licenses for distribution with commercial or proprietary applications for a reasonable fee. We are also considering offering a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Exception, which would keep your non-GPL'd projects from falling under the GPL.
There is no warranty provided with Dabo, it is provided as-is. Dabo
is currently in a pre-alpha state of development. There is currently no
official documentation, other than the source code and the introductory
bits on our website:
The primary means of support is provided through the dabo-users mailing list, to which you may subscribe by visiting:
http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-users
Dabo may be downloaded from the following link:
We invite you to participate in the development of Dabo. The source code is available from our Subversion repository, so you'll need to install the Subversion client from http://subversion.tigris.org. If you are familiar with CVS, you'll love Subversion. The repository can then be downloaded by issuing the following command:
svn checkout http://svn.dabodev.com/dabo/trunk dabo
There is a mailing list for developers, to which you may subscribe by visiting:
http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-dev
All development conversations are had there, and commit notifications are sent there. You may submit patches to that address as a text attachment in svn diff format.
In addition to the main dabo project, there are three other Dabo-related projects in various states of development:
- svn checkout http://svn.dabodev.com/dabodemo/trunk dabodemo
- svn co http://svn.dabodev.com/dabodesigner/trunk dabodesigner
- svn checkout http://svn.dabodev.com/dabodoc/trunk dabodoc
The dabodemo project seeks to develop one or more example
applications that can be used by developers learning Dabo as a
guideline and/or starting point for understanding how to go about
creating an application using Dabo. A frequent problem with any new
development tool is right after you get it installed and say "OK, now
what?". The dabodemo project's goal is to provide some examples to get
you going.
The dabodesigner project is an attempt to create a visual form design
tool, analogous to the design surfaces in Visual Studio, or the
Form/Class designer in Visual FoxPro?. While it is very early in
development and still needs a lot of work, it has a lot of
functionality in it already. There is also a wizard for creating
basic database table maintenance applications. Depending on user
interest, this project may grow to include other similar tools to make
the visual side of app development easier.
The dabodoc project is designed to be a repository for documentation.
Like most projects that are the work of a small group, the developers
have been too busy developing to properly document things. This is our
acknowledgement of that fact, and a place for those of you who want to
contribute, to write and/or Edit the Dabo documentation.
Please visit our website at:
and contribute to the Dabo Wiki at: