Re: bash vs. python scripts - which one is better?

From: Douglas A. Tutty <dtutty(at)porchlight.ca>
Date: Mon Aug 20 2007 - 20:35:33 EDT

On Sun, Aug 19, 2007 at 11:03:50PM -0500, Anthony M Simonelli wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 14:35 -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
>
> > Python + Tcl/Tk should be easier than Python + Gtk.
> >
> > Even simpler would be bash + dialog or it's GUI companion gtkdialog.
> >
>
> How about Zenity? I've used it before to provide a GUI interface to
> some of my simple bash scripts.

Here's my samples from my notes directory. There's one for curses and one that does a couple of ways of using dialog, the latter way uses a dialog module I wrote and include at the end. The module takes care of packing the strings that go to the dialog command line making the main program line clean and neat.

Disclaimer: I've only used this a couple of times since most of my stuff uses normal text i/o.

Doug.

---

curses:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# from p 416 in python 2.1 bible.

import curses

try:
  MainWindow=curses.initscr()
  MainWindow.addstr(1,3, "Hello", curses.A_BOLD | curses.A_UNDERLINE )   MainWindow.refresh()
  curses.echo()
  MainWindow.getch()
finally:
  curses.endwin()

Dialog:

#!/usr/bin/python -O

""" Tests the Dialog examples, in python, using different ways """

# Import statements
import os
import dialog

# "Constants"
DIALOG=" /usr/bin/dialog "

# Definition of classes and functions

# Main Function

if (__name__=="__main__"):

	# message box
	Dialog_title=' --title "Message Box"'
	Dialog_options=' --clear'
	Dialog_box_options=' --msgbox'
	Dialog_text=' "Hi, this is a simple message box.  You can use this to'
	Dialog_text+=' display any message you like.  The box will remain until'
	Dialog_text+=' you press the ENTER key."'
	Dialog_height=' 10'
	Dialog_width=' 41'

	Dialog_CMD=DIALOG + Dialog_title + Dialog_options + Dialog_box_options + Dialog_text
	Dialog_CMD+=Dialog_height + Dialog_width

	os.system(Dialog_CMD)

	#input box

	Dialog_CMD=DIALOG + ' --title "InputBox" --clear --inputbox \

  "Hi, this is an input dialog box. You can use this to ask questions \   that require the user to input a string as the answer. You can \   input strings longer than the width of the input box, in that case, the \   input field will be automatially scrolled. You can use BACKSPACE to \   correct errors.\
  \
  Try entering your name below:" \
  16 51'

        #rc=os.system(Dialog_CMD)

	# rc is 0 since dialog exited OK. we need to see stderr
	#use os.popen (or if necesary popen4)

	w,rc=os.popen4(Dialog_CMD)

	del w  
	print rc.read()
	del rc

	## file selector doesn't work right
  
 	## now try dialog module

	hello=dialog.Dialog()
	
  	# message box
  	hello.title='--title "Message Box" '
  	hello.boxtype='--msgbox '
  	hello.text='"Message box using dialog class" '
  	hello.height='10 '
  	hello.width='41 '
	w,r=os.popen4(hello.show())

	print r.read()

Here's the dialog module:

#dialog.py
"""

Module wrapper for /usr/bin/dialog. See man page.

Options for dialog are attributes of a dialog instance. e.g. instead of adding --title, do:
obj.title=' --title "This is the title" '    

Remember to include a trailing space in each attribute

method pack() returns the complete dialog to run using:

	Dialog_CMD=dialog.show()
	w,r = os.popen4(Dialog_CMD)

This allows access to stdin and stdout/stderr. Guage bars, for example, read from stdin until get EOF.     

    """

class Dialog:     

  	"""Object version of Dialog: attributes same as Dialog's
	options"""
	def __init__(self):
		self.DIALOG = " /usr/bin/dialog "
		# common options
		self.aspect=''
		self.backtitle=''
		self.beep=''
		self.beepafter=''
		self.begin=''
		self.cancellabel=''
		self.clear=''
		self.crwrap=''
		self.defaultno=''
		self.defaultitem=''
		self.helpbutton=''
		self.helplabel=''
		self.itemhelp=''
		self.maxinput=''
		self.nokill=''
		self.nocancel=''
		self.noshadow=''
		self.oklabel=''
		self.printmaxsize=''
		self.printsize=''
		self.separateoutput=''
		self.separatewidget=''
		self.shadow=''
		self.sleep=''
		self.stdout=''
		self.tabcorrect=''
		self.tablen=''
		self.timeout=''
		self.title=''
		self.trim=''
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		# box type and box options
		#this is only the type, e.g. obj.box_type='infobox'
		self.boxtype=''
		self.text=''
		self.height=''
		self.width=''
		self.boxoptions=''
		#this is other box options specific to the type of box, placed
		# after text, height, and width

	def show(self):
      
		self.Dialog_CMD=self.DIALOG + self.aspect + self.backtitle\
		+ self.beep + self.beepafter + self.begin \
		+ self.cancellabel + self.clear + self.crwrap \
		+ self.defaultno + self.defaultitem + self.helpbutton\
		+ self.helplabel + self.itemhelp\
		+ self.maxinput + self.nokill + self.nocancel \
		+ self.nocancel + self.noshadow + self.oklabel \
		+ self.printmaxsize + self.printsize \
		+ self.separateoutput + self.separatewidget \
		+ self.shadow + self.sleep + self.stdout + self.tabcorrect \
		+ self.tablen + self.timeout + self.title + self.trim \
		+ self.boxtype + self.text + self.height + self.width \
		+ self.boxoptions

		return(self.Dialog_CMD)

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Received on Mon Aug 20 20:37:32 2007