Re: Compiler status
- Posted by "Cuny, David at DSS" <David.Cuny at DSS.CA.GOV> Jul 11, 2000
- 604 views
Ralf wrote: > The fact is nobody uses [the DOS graphics library]. I guess that makes me a nobody. > I mean, it would make much more sense to add a > platform independent GUI lib than to add a > graphical lib that only works on Dos32. True, but no one is 'adding' a library. It's been part of Euphoria for quite some time. You're talking apples and oranges here. There's a world of difference between a fullscreen/framebuffer type of graphic system (like DOS has), and a windowed graphic system (like the X Window System). If you just want a cross-platform replacement for the fullescreen DOS graphics library, I'd suggest SciTech's MGL library (http://www.scitechsoft.com/download.html), which runs under Windows, Linux, DOS, OS/2 and QNX. Even if Robert added a cross-platform GUI, it seems to me that he would still want to keep the DOS graphic library intact. > The year is 2000, may I remind you, nobody > uses Dos anymore By the same criteria, 'nobody' codes in Euphoria, either. I do quite a bit of DOS coding. > I dunno which, I suggest some one asks > David .. he seen 'em all. You can find a good list of options at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/7184/guitool.html, and decide if you agree with me or not. On the commercial side, Qt (http://www.trolltech.com/) and Zinc (http://www.zinc.com/products/zaf/zaf.htm) are probably the best options. Both are C++ based, and Qt uses a pre-processor, so there would be some challanges for Robert here, but they are surmountable. Both libraries seem to have fairly small footprints, and Zinc even supports DOS and Macintosh. But I doubt that Robert could afford either option - or that we'd be willing to buy Euphoria to support the cost of the toolkit. On the free side, V (http://www.objectcentral.com/vgui/vgui.htm) and wxWindows (http://206.101.232.131/) are probably the best options. V is very nice (and easier to learn), but wxWindows seems far more complete, supporting many more platforms - even the Mac. Both libraries are in C++, so there are no doubt serious issues to getting either working. On the other hand, I know that Python bindings exist for wxWindows, so it should be quite possible. I'm quite fond of a number of other toolkits that don't offer complete solutions, such as: GTK+ (http://www.gtk.org) Microwindows (http://microwindows.censoft.com/) WINE (http://www.winehq.com) OpenGL (http://www.opengl.org/) OK, bottom line: if Robert were to graft a cross-platform library onto Euphoria, I'd highly suggest using wxWindows: - Free, even for commercial purposes - Complete - cross-platform fonts, printing, etc. - Well documented - Well supported - Runs on Win32, GTK+ and Macintosh - Pending ports include BeOS and QNX - wxPython shows can be used in scripting language Personally, I'd love to see a port to wxWindows. -- David Cuny