Overview
The computer programs most users interact with on a daily basis are driven by a graphical user interfaces (GUIs). These users often find command-line programs hard to use. Programs that can be run on the command line retain certain advantages, however, such as being executed though a batch file and easy retention of program execution options. This tension between ease of use and flexibility is often evident in programs used for scientific computation of data analysis.
guiLiner was created as a "wrapper" or "host" for population genetic analysis programs. It can, however, be used to host almost any command line program. On its own, guiLiner is likely to be most useful to computer software developers. Once configured to work with particular programs, guiLiner will be used by end-users, hopefully without their knowing too much about it.
To summarize what this project is about: guiLiner creates a GUI for command- line programs.
Features
- Significant flexibility to host a variety of command line programs
- Graphical display and setting of program parameters
- Rich variety of input interfaces to accommodate varied option types
- Easy identification of required, optional and conditional options
- Easy identification of options that have been set
- Display of option documentation
- Display of program help file (if available in HTML)
- Ability to save and open program parameters, preserving them between sessions
- Ability to save program output, including errors, to a text file
- Display of program progress/output and errors
- Good-looking: has a pluggable "look and feel"
See guiLiner in action
We now have several demos of population genetic analysis and simulation programs hosted by guiLiner available in our Projects page. Thanks to the authors of these programs, who allowed us to post these.
eca_opt
Eca_opt is a collection of macros and underlying code written in C that provides a flexible means of parsing command lines, checking for errors, and printing documentation in various formats. The documentation for each command line option is written into the source code in a streamlined manner, from whence it can be output in several different formats. One of the formats supported is guiliner-XML.
Citing guiLiner
If you use guiLiner with a scientific computation project which is published, we would appreciate a citation. You can read an e-print describing guiLiner on ArXiv, and find the citation information in bibTeX format here