[Gambas-user] article for devx.com

[stibs at ...6...]

So, here it is.

Gambas is addressed lower down. I didn't write much about because I thought some real world user statements from the mailing list would describe it best. If you can provide me some words about experiences with Gambas I'd be happy to include it.

I highly appreciate proofreading, removing bugs, changing my (german like) choice of words and cleaning the text as well as hints and suggestions about the content.

Thank you very much in advance!

The text:
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Most Wanted? ... maybe it's already there...

Russell Jones quoted in his editorial Russell Pavlicek with his "Top 10: Most Wanted Applications for Linux". Since I do consulting work, administration/ migration and training for Open Source solutions here in Germany, I'm confronted daily with many questions regarding equivalents under Linux for commonly used applications on Windows. To answer these questions I had to search the software portals up and down for available programs for Linux that can replace their Windows counterparts which again provided me a good market overview. Some of these solutions run now in my own office/home network, some at my clients computers, some I didn't test because I had no such problem to solve yet.

In the following text I will step through Russell Pavlicek's suggestions and show that there already exist solutions for many of the mentioned applications and tasks.

Russell lists ten points in reverse order, so we start with the last one as well.

[[10.  Migration tools from Eudora/Outlook to Kmail/Evolution. Although some solutions exist, there's no enterprise level GUI-driven solution for moving Exchange email to an open source counterpart.]]

Three examples:

Mozilla
The Mozilla project produces the successor of the old Netscape 4.7x browser suite. From it's open source all new Netscape versions as well as other browsers like Galeon (a well known Gnome application) are built. It is platform independent and available on Windows and different flavors of Unix including Linux and OSX. The built in mail client, Mozilla Messenger, was recently voted as the best Anti-Spam tool available by the german PC magazine c't, one of the leading german publications for computer professionals. It is a pure mail client and nothing else (no groupware or calendaring) but offers a comfortable wizard for importing Outlook and Outlook Express addressbooks and mail folder structures. In my opinion Mozilla offers the easiest transition from Windows to Linux in usability.

KMail
KMail is a mail client integrated in the K Desktop Environment (KDE). It is basically also a mail-only application but there exist different solutions, for example KOrganizer, where the mail features of KMail are plugged to extend the functionality. KOrganizer is a calendaring/ scheduling application with task management. KMail offers in the tools menu the import wizards for Outlook Express 4 and 5 mail folder structures and MS Exchange addressbooks.

[KMAIL's import filter - Screenshot with anti-aliased fonts on Mandrake 9.2 Beta 2]

Evolution
Evolution from Ximian, recently acquired by Novell, is a software like Microsoft Outlook. It is the leader in its field on Linux comparing features and equipment. The easiest solution to get Outlook appointments, calendars or tasks transferred to Evolution is Outport (http://outport.sourceforge.net), a Windows software that exports the Outlook items into the native Evolution file format. Copy the files to the Linux machine and read them with Evolution and you're done. Evolution is able, like the other two programs, to import Outlook email structures directly with a wizard.

[[9. Anti-virus scanning for all protocols. Although users don't have to be as concerned (presently) with email viruses on Linux, it's critical for Linux mail servers to protect Windows clients. Users also need solutions that guard against malevolent code delivered via HTTP and FTP.]]

As stated, the virus scanning isn't that important for Linux itself yet. With Linux gaining marketshare on the desktop this situation will perhaps change. But if you today use Linux as a mailserver or gateway in your heterogenous network, it should protect your windows computers from malicious code. The solution for this problem is Open Antivirus (http://www.openantivirus.org). They provide a scanner demon which is able to monitor network traffic, Virus-Hammer, a standalone application for end-users, Squid- and Samba- VScan modules which monitor webproxy traffic (Squid) and Samba/ Windows share file traffic. The open architecture and the fact, it's written in Java, allow the protection system running at different operating systems and integrate with different, also commercial, virus scanners like FProt or Kaspersky AV. The software is already used in other projects, mostly for securing mailservers. Messagewall (http://messagewall.org) or AmAViS (http://amavis.org) are two exam!
ples.

If we speak about anti-virus it's not far to spam, the second biggest plague of our days. Linux got plenty of applications to avoid the unwanted mails. Server side this is SpamAssassin (http://spamassassin.org) or Blackhole (http://iland.net/~ckennedy/blackhole.shtml) which can filter the mails in direct cooperation with the MTA, Blackhole can also perform virus-scans. Before the mails get delivered to the user mailboxes a tool called Spastic (http://spastic.sourceforge.net) does a great job of sorting/filtering and at the client side the Mozilla Messenger has great features to get rid of the unwanted offers.

[[8. Excel macro conversion. Although StarOffice, OpenOffice, and others can read and convert Excel files, they can't convert or run Excel VBA macros. As many companies have significant and often critical investments in such macros, they won't migrate until that work can run equivalently on Linux.]]

That's a field that, to my knowledge, nobody really worked yet. Saying Star Office and OpenOffice can't convert VBA macros is not 100% correct. They can, if the macros are easy ones. But I guess most companies macros aren't easy.

[[7. Photoshop. A robust open-source image editing program, GIMP, already has a powerful feature set, but it needs a cleaner, easier interface, with top-tier Photoshop functionality—a GIMP for professional-level users. (Note: Photoshop now runs on WINE.)]]

There is one project in the KDE office suite, if it gets manpower sometimes in the future, that could push the Gimp from it's throne on Linux... http://www.koffice.org/krita. Familiar interface, familiar handling and menus chracterize the software but only two or three developers really work on it ... too bad. Krita doesn't really exist in a preview version. You only get KDE Head packages (latest CVS snapshots) as Debian packages from Orth's KDE Head website (http://opendoorsoftware.com/cgi/http.pl?p=kdecvs) and there is one Linux Live CD distro which is bold enough to include Krita in their additional second CD: http://www.mepis.org- Mepis Linux, a new distribution on the market but very stable and solidly based on Debian.

[[6. AutoCAD. Pavlicek characterized AutoCAD as "the big dog of the midrange yard." Both high-end commercial CAD packages and lower-end open source CAD applications exist, but Linux needs a CAD package with a price-to-features ratio equivalent to AutoCAD. AutoCAD itself has so far declined to port its flagship product to Linux.]]

I agree 100%. An AutoCAD like software Linux still needs. There are great programs for 2D and partially 3D CAD for the lower end. QCad (http://qcad.org) is the first to mention. It is a great tool for 2D CAD and imports/exports DXF files that can be used in other CAD systems. Qcad is considered as a first choice for mechanical construction. Varicad is the other system I know about. IT's also targeted to mechanical engineering. The developers are a czech company. Varicad sells for $399 while Qcad is Open Source software. Both are available for Linux and Windows while QCad also supports other Unix flavors and MacOSX.

On the top of the scale you find software like PRO/ENGINEER Wildfire (http://ptc.com/appserver/it/icm/cda/icm01_list.jsp?group=201&num=1&show=y&keyword=403) from PTC, a CAD program used by companies like Harley Davidson, Mitsubishi or Lucent. Linux really lacks an application like AutoCAD.

[[5. Better default fonts in X11 (Linux's X-windows implementation). The default fonts bother some people to the point that there's an Xfree86 Font Deuglification tutorial to help fix the problem.]]

I'm really not sure if this is still true. I use Mandrake Linux 9.1 on most of my desktop computers. I think I remember that since version 8.2 Mandrake supports anti aliased fonts by default, since 9.1 also the installation screens have them. There are plenty of tools that can import truetype fonts if you really dislike what comes with the distribution, in Mandrake the tool is built into the Mandrake Control Center. Also Bitstream donated some months ago it's Vera font family to the Open Source.

[[4. Mass deployment/enterprise admin tools. Although Linux ships with many administration tools, it needs enterprise-level tools for managing desktops and servers, pushing upgrades, lockdown and refresh, and performing backups.]]

I haven't much experience with mass deployments and enterprise admin tools since my clients are small companies up to 20 PC's. One training center I look after runs 200 desktop machines on Windows in the classrooms but that's the exception. Though I know SuSE and RedHat offer in their Enterprise Server distribution tools for desktop management, administration, software distribution and all the addressed tasks. I'm sure a SuSE expert can tell more about this, here is at least the product description page of SuSE's Enterprise Server distribution- http://www.suse.com/us/business/products/server/sles/index.html.

[[3. Easier connections to Windows shares and Netware file servers. Linux's connectivity software, SAMBA, is extremely powerful, but needs a better, easier interface. Linux needs a simple Windows domain login (Xandros is available as a commercial solution), and an equivalent to Windows' network neighborhood.]]

In this part I'll describe the equivalents of Windows Network neighbourhood. I'm not too sure if a Linux desktop needs a Windows domain logon since Linux in most cases replaces the expensive Windows NT/2000/2003 servers, so it would make much more sense to have an easier Windows logon to a Linux based user authentification system.

The first way to access a Windows share is direct access from Konqueror, the KDE filemanager and browser. It's built in. Instead typing an internet protocol like http:// or ftp:// simply type smb://computername/sharename into the address line and your Linux PC connects and asks for username and password. The only problem is, you have to know computername and sharename.

Working around this fact are Komba (for KDE), Gnomba (for Gnome), LinNeighbourhood (not bound to a desktop environment) and smb4K (also for KDE). All programs are able to browse a Windows domain or workgroup, display the members and it's shares in a nice tree view and mount them directly into the Unix filesystem. If you have different logons to different shares you can manage them in the programs.

[Screenshot smb4K browsing a win2k machine with a mounted share and showing info about the share]

I don't have experience with Novell so I can't tell much about, but with Novells recent Linux activities I don't think we have to wait long if a solution for a special problem doesn't exist yet.

[[2. Shared calendaring. Pavlicek calls shared calendaring the "opium of the enterprise," and says some organizations are simply addicted to Exchange's calendaring features. Linux needs a true, powerful, multi-platform calendaring server.]]

OpenGroupware.org, an offshoot from the OpenOffice.org project, is a rocksolid server solution formerly known as Skyrix which held for years the groupware part in SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Mail Server until they found a partner with better contract conditions. Kolab (http://www.kolab.org) is an equal solution. The development of Kolab was funded by the german government to have an Exchange like server for administrations. Both projects have german roots. A real business opportunity would be a user account conversion tool Exchange -> OpenGroupware.org.

I also know of an OpenLDAP scheme that allows shared calendaring in ical format though I never tested it myself and the Mozilla calender module which uses the WEBDAV module on a webserver for sharing calendars.

Not to mention the uncounted browser based groupware suites written in Perl and PHP where I prefer the integrated solution from http://phprojekt.com, an with project- and document- management coupled groupware.

[[1. An MS Access-like small desktop database. There are many good databases available for Linux, but nothing that provides users with Access' ease-of-use. Linux needs a lightweight database with a simple GUI interface that database novices can use to design and populate databases.]]

An MS Access like small desktop database frontend is Kexi (http://www.koffice.org/kexi), not ready yet for the upcoming KOffice 1.3 (the KDE office suite) but due late this year with a first stable standalone release. Later it will be back as an integrated part in KOffice. It includes the SQLite DB engine as an embedded database, it is scriptable with QSA (QT Script for Applications from Trolltech) and very usable (tested it with a self compiled beta). Kexi connects to database servers (MySQL, CQL) as well and planned is interfacing with ODBC.

OpenOffice.org is also able to connect to database servers and provides an easy to use interface with form wizard. It reminds more to MS Access with it's easy to use interface. OpenOffice.org features no embedded database like Kexi but offers access to all OO.o native database drivers and all JDBC and ODBC compliant databases.

Another frontend for databases is  Knoda (http://knoda.sourceforge.net). It can be used to produce forms and reports and is scriptable in Python.

[[Although it didn't make the top 10, Pavlicek says another oft-mentioned corporate roadblock to Linux adoption is the lack of Visual Basic or any language like it.]]

There is number eleven. Probably very interesting for you. The good news: There exist VB like RAD tools for Linux, quite alot already. To start with the BASIC dialects there are two projects which can already considered stable. Gambas (http://gambas.sourceforge.net) and HBasic (http://hbasic.sourceforge.net). Benoit Mitsini, the developer of Gambas describes his software this way:

" With Gambas, you can quickly design your program GUI, access MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, pilot KDE applications with DCOP, translate your program into many languages, and so on... [but] I want to clear up any misunderstanding immediately. Gambas does not try to be compatible with Visual Basic, and will never be. I'm convinced that its syntax and internals are far better than the one's of its proprietary cousin ;-). I took from Visual Basic what I found useful: the Basic language, the development environment, and the easiness to quickly make programs with user interfaces."

***Gambas user experiences go here. Also transition VB -> Gambas experiences...***

[Screenshot Gambas in action]

HBasic plays in the same league with a not so active developer community and interesting features like a database form wizard, database-, query- and report- designer which take over alot of programming work. HBasic's editor is very comfortable with it's code completion. HBasic also can setup projects in C#, produce .NET compatible code and you can access class instances of .NET classes from HBasic code when you compile the .NET support from the DotGNU project into the HBasic binaries.

[Screenshots HBasic]

Both, Gambas and HBasic, need only some days of adoption for an experienced VB programmer.

Real Software with their proprietary RealBasic, which is able to convert VB to RB code, announced a Linux version for autumn this year too (http://realsoftware.com/company/pressreleases/linuxAnnounce.html).

For Delphi and C++ programmers exists a common development environment with Kylix. It is free as long as the resulting applications are distributed as Open Source. Java developers can use the platform independent Eclipse IDE from Sun.

With references to the Macintosh world, Runtime Revolution Ltd. (http://runrev.com) from UK produces a software that allows programming in the style of Apples Hypercard. "Revolution is a multi-platform software development tool that enables developers to easily and quickly create powerful applications for OS X, classic Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and popular Unix systems with native look and feel on all platforms." they state on their homepage. A trial version, limited in the lines of code that can be written, is available for free.

PythonCard (http://pythoncard.sourceforge.net) is a similar software but still far from the mature state of Revolution. If you look for an Open Source software it's a good choice. It uses the well known Python as the scripting language.

There is still more. Mozilla is a software I mentioned often in this article. Mozilla isn't only a browser suite. The developers built a very complete and intelligent infrastructure to make the software as portable and customizable as possible. With this infrastructure an XML dialect came up that can describe GUI interfaces. It's called XUL.

The Mozilla binaries render the XUL file and display instead of textual descriptions the matching GUI widgets, just like any webbrowser replaces the <input type="submit"> HTML tag with a submit button. It's right the same like with HTML, you can make XUL documents responding to any event with Java Script. To develop XUL applications you would need just a text editor but a RAD tool for developing the XUL interface is available.

XULmaker (http://xulmaker.mozdev.org) is currently a visual and interactive creator and editor of only XUL files. It is intended to evolve XULMaker over time into a full blown IDE - covering all development aspects of an XUL application. This will include the integration of a JavaScript editor and a CSS stylesheet editor for example.

Summary... I'll write sometime on Sunday :P
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--Kindest Regards/ Freundliche Grüße--
STIBS (aka Michael Stibane)

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." --Voltaire
... seems this guy already knew about Linux :o) ...

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