OpenEuphoria

Re: Compiler status

• Posted by "Cuny, David at DSS" <David.Cuny at DSS.CA.GOV> Jul 11, 2000
• 605 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