OpenEuphoria

Re: Win32Lib: making a "List Table"?

• Posted by Brian Jackson <bjackson at 2FARGON.COM> Feb 01, 2000
• 580 views

>Everett L.(Rett) Williams
>rett at gvtc.com
>
>I like the second idea much better. ActiveX is the single most virus prone
>item that MS has ever been able to create.

I'll take issue on that one.  Ever hear of this little thing called
a 'macro virus'?  Those are WordBasic/VisualBasic virii, not activeX.

>Why would Eu want to support that.

Because by supporting COM (activeX), Eu would come into the mainstream with
C/C++, VB, and all the other 4GL languages for the Wintel platform.  I for
one would actually *LIKE* to be able to embed Windows Media Player within
one of my applications.  I would like to have my users click on a SAVE
AS .DOC button in a win32Lib app, and make MS-Word save the document for
me. I'd like to see Dan (and everyone else) have access to grid controls.
Heck, one of my most profitable areas of expertise is taking old DOS apps
that were written in 1978, and rewriting them as windows apps that display
everything inside of the Internet Explorer activeX control, so that you can
use the apps at work, at home, or on the road.  Why WOULDN'T Eu want to
support that?  I personally find it very frustrating to see all these tools
out there for the taking, and not be able to use them...

>An interface to JAVA, JINI, CORBA would make a lot more sense.

I can't comment on CORBA or JINI since I'm not particularly familiar with
them, but JAVA?!!  I understand that JAVA is basically platform-
independent, but if you want to code in JAVA, code in JAVA - why use Eu
to "wrap" JAVA.  Oh yeah - because it's 8 times faster.

I guess the bottom line is that, like it or not, COM/activeX is a
*standard* for the serious WIN32 programmer.  It seems to me that Eu is
already at a cross-roads with the namespace and OOP issues, and activeX
seems like a logical extension of that line of thinking.  I suppose that
RDS (and the rest of the Eu community) will have to make some desicions on
what type of language Euphoria will become in the future.  I vote for OOP
and COM because with a little investment in learning classes, methods, and
structures, you get a HUGE return in the number of things you can
accomplish.  This helps keep Eu simple, but makes it extremely powerful,
too.

NOTE:
Although my opinions on this issue are very strong and I disagree with
Everett at every opportunity, this is *NOT* a flame.  I respect Everett's
opinions very much, and welcome a debate on this issue, whether anyone else
agrees with me or not.

Brian