Cross platform UI development
ale...@thor.ngc.com
Hello,
Like probably a lot of people, we are facing the problem of having to develop
a Graphical User Interface on multiple platforms ( mainly Windows 3.x, win32,
Xlib & Motif ).
There are a couple of solutions out there that have the rather bothering
approach to create yet a third API ( that of course very few programmers on the
market know ) and 'map' this new API onto the target platform (Windows,
X-Window... ).
The problem of course is that you do not leverage your programmers expertise
(often a long history of experiments, mistake and try and test approach) on a
particular platform, and need all of them to learn and basically being a
beginner again. Oups.. rather costly and unefficient.
I was wondering of we have tools or library that actually 'map' one environment
onto the other, keeping the same API so that, at least the experience on one of
both world is still valuable. ( For instance, did some bright people
implemented MFC 2.0 on top of X11-Motif. I'd love to see that, and it is
probably not that hard. Even if you have to talk Xlib directly ).
I have heard of WABI that sounds good, but is it real today ?
Any information greetly appreciated,
=========================================================================
Alexis MERMET-GRANDFILLES
Network General Corp
CA, USA
415 473 2943
David Brabant
>Any information greetly appreciated,
Take a look at Wind/U from Bristol Technology. You can have a full description
by sending e-mail to je...@bristol.com.
Basically, Wind/U is a set of tools that enable Windows applications to
run on OSF/Motif after doing a (minimal) rewriting. The Wind/U library
provides Windows functionality by translating SDK API function calls into
equivalent X Window and Motif function calls.
HTH
David
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Scott Cattanach
>Take a look at Wind/U from Bristol Technology. You can have a full description
>by sending e-mail to je...@bristol.com.
>Basically, Wind/U is a set of tools that enable Windows applications to
>run on OSF/Motif after doing a (minimal) rewriting. The Wind/U library
>provides Windows functionality by translating SDK API function calls into
>equivalent X Window and Motif function calls.
Is there anything which does the reverse (Motif on Windows)?
--
December figures from the International Monetary Fund reveal that
the U.S overnment's subsidy to the dairy industry in 1986 worked
out to $1,139 for every cow in the country. (That is the greater
than the average annual income for half the world's population.)
David Connet
>
>Hello,
>
>Like probably a lot of people, we are facing the problem of having to develop
>a Graphical User Interface on multiple platforms ( mainly Windows 3.x, win32,
>Xlib & Motif ).
>
>There are a couple of solutions out there that have the rather bothering
>approach to create yet a third API ( that of course very few programmers on the
>market know ) and 'map' this new API onto the target platform (Windows,
>X-Window... ).
>The problem of course is that you do not leverage your programmers expertise
>(often a long history of experiments, mistake and try and test approach) on a
>particular platform, and need all of them to learn and basically being a
>beginner again. Oups.. rather costly and unefficient.
>
>I was wondering of we have tools or library that actually 'map' one environment
>onto the other, keeping the same API so that, at least the experience on one of
>both world is still valuable. ( For instance, did some bright people
>implemented MFC 2.0 on top of X11-Motif. I'd love to see that, and it is
>probably not that hard. Even if you have to talk Xlib directly ).
Borland is working with Novell on exactly that. ObjectWindows for AppWare.
In their product introduction thingy for C++ 4.0, they were pushing the point
that when it is available (summer 94), OWL for AppWare will be a cross-platform
application framework targeting Windows, Unix, OS/2, and the Mac.
In 4.0's current environment, you can develop Win3.x, Win32s, WinNT, DOS,
DOS overlays and NT console mode apps (in the same project even).
Dave (not a Borland spokesperson, just a content, if a little impatient, user)
Joseph P. Jarosz
: I have heard of WABI that sounds good, but is it real today ?
I have a friend who has a friend at Sun who tried to run several of the most
popular PC programs like Quicken on his Sun using WABI and it failed every
time he tried.
I don't think that you will find the kind'a API you are looking for. Not one
that actually works at least. The reason is that the various windowing systems
have big differences that make a one-for-one impossible.
Personally, I use a tool known as "Galaxy" from Visix Corp. in Virgina. If
you really need unix and windows support -- its the only way to go. They also
are starting to support the MAC and OS/2 tough I have not used those versions.
thanx,
jo...@netcom.com
`
Joseph P. Jarosz
: Take a look at Wind/U from Bristol Technology. You can have a full description
: by sending e-mail to je...@bristol.com.
: Basically, Wind/U is a set of tools that enable Windows applications to
: run on OSF/Motif after doing a (minimal) rewriting. The Wind/U library
: provides Windows functionality by translating SDK API function calls into
: equivalent X Window and Motif function calls.
Last time I checked, porting a program from the PC to Unix involved more
than windowing functionality. How 'bout file system differences, memory
allocation differences, interprocess communications differences, etc., etc.
Does Wind/U deal with these at all?
John Grant
That's a good point - file system & ipc differences are different.
The memory allocation should be a non-issue, however. The
preferred environment now is large model + malloc/new.
(instead of GlobalAlloc etc). This simplifies the porting not
only to Windows NT but to other O/S as well. Now on the other
hand, if a program has already been coded with GlobalAlloc...
then there is definitely a lot of work to do.
--
John A. Grant jag...@emr1.emr.ca
Airborne Geophysics
Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa
David Brabant
From the Wind/U Technical description :
[...]
"Motif lacks some important windowing technology" (sic)
"Features such as multiple document interface (MDI),
combo boxes, dynamically linked libraries, and dynamic
data exchange (DDE) are vita to many MSWindows applications.
Wind/U contains custom widgets and algorithms that allow
applications to utilize these MSWindows features on Motif."
[...]
"Depending on the functionality of the MSWindows application being
compiled on UNIX, preemptive multitasking considerations can be
the most difficult problems to solve. Any MSWindows application
that shares global resources with other applications will require
modifications to protect critical accesses of the shared resources.
This type of application includes those using DDE, shared files,
and shared memory objects. Wind/U protects critical region locking of
globally allocated memory and enforces single threaded access to
shared files."
[...]
For more informations, send an e-mail to je...@bristol.com
ale...@thor.ngc.com
In article <joeyCGI...@netcom.com>, <jo...@netcom.com> writes:
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comp.os.ms-windows.misc:15580
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> From: jo...@netcom.com (Joseph P. Jarosz)
> Subject: Re: Cross platform UI development
> Message-ID: <joeyCGI...@netcom.com>
> Followup-To:
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> References: <david.324...@csl.sni.be>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1993 22:35:53 GMT
> Lines: 18
If you use the Windows API and/or the MFC objects, you should be pretty much
protected. Windows API includes all for files, memory, IPC, etc...
Win32 API is even better, and I think wind/U also supports Win32 ( Win32s at
least)
- Alexis