OpenEuphoria

Win32LIb/Llama Status

• Posted by David Cuny <dcuny at LANSET.COM> Jun 24, 1999
• 494 views

For anyone curious about the status of Llama and Win32Lib:

[ The Bad News ]

Llama won't bind correctly, even with -clear_routines. I suspect the problem
is that I have a bunch of include files with the same local function names -
for example, "set".

(BTW, thanks for the hint about alt+034. I theory, that feature is supposed
to be in EE)

Anyway, Euphoria decides that the second "set" is a name conflict, and the
next "set" that follows... each is renamed some symbol like "Dg" or "Lw",
despite the -clear_routines option being selected.

Naturally, routine_id can't find the renamed symbol, and Llama returns error
after error about methods not being defined.

This is a Bad Thing. I could get around it by renaming the function to
unique identifiers, such as windowSet and pushButtonSet. But I'd prefer that
it just work correctly. I'd like to see this fixed, but not before the Linux
port.


[ Win32Lib Status ]

Sorry about not posting the latest version of Win32Lib. If anyone wants the
most current version (with updated documentation but no demos), snag the
copy that's posted with the Pretender demo. I've been hammering away at
Llama, and didn't get a chance to update it yet.

If anyone is holding off on writing an application using Win32Lib because
you think it'll be made obsolete by Llama, my advice is to use Win32Lib.
It's more stable and feature complete. When Llama finally gets stable enough
to start writing programs with, it should be trivial to port from Win32Lib.


[ New Llama Stuff ]

Pixmaps (color bitmaps) and BitBlt (fast graphic and sprites) work. I've
ported the Pretender demo; it seems to run ok. I didn't think I'd ever get
that stuff working.

The class library has been revamped, simplified and speeded up. All this is
invisible to the end user.

The native event handling code has been pulled out of the class library and
written in another module. This helps make the code more portable.

All the native widgets from the prior version of Llama have been ported to
the new version, except for menus. Menus are a bit more messy, and aren't
quite the no-brainer ports that most of the other classes were.

A couple of portable (emulated) controls have been implemented. I've got
push buttons, check boxes and radio buttons working, to some extent. These
controls look and feel like native controls, both to the developer and the
end user, and they work side-by-side with native controls.

And, of course, there are tons of small and large bug fixes.


[ What's Still Missing From Llama ]

Off the top of my head, I'd say the following features in Win32Lib have
still not been ported:

   - multiple windows (they might work - I just haven't tested them)
   - modal windows
   - tab keys
   - menus and menu bars
   - decent documentation

All told, the gap between Win32Lib and Llama continues to close. I'm a bit
cautious about the speed of Llama - it seems to run OK, but I'm worried
about the overhead associated with the classes. With that said, I'm still
quite cautiously optimistic about Llama being able to replace Win32Lib.


[ So When Will It Be Posted ]

I'll try - really - to get a copy of Llama and the latest version of
Win32Lib out this weekend. No promises, though.

Comments?

-- David Cuny

-- David Cuny