[M3devel] Modernising m3-ui?

[Dragiša Durić]

Modernizing of GUI is not so big a problem - lots of C(++) libraries
around.... And after wrapping _LOTS OF_ C libraries I can tell one thing
- there's nothing like a manual touch! And I've wrapped pthreads, mysql,
sqlite, gtk, gtk2, zip, bzip2, zaptel, libpri .....and many more.

Modula-3 philosophy (at least it looks to me sometimes) is to think
about Modula-3 legacy libraries/project like it's something carved in
stone... To be kosher we must use right (legacy of course and
all-platforms of coursier :)) libraries for every job.... Nice idea, esp
when we whink longer term maintenance... But what made projects like,
for example, Linux desktop successful is not single solution path - it's
diversity of possible solutions.

Main problem with diversity of solutions is multi-platform nature of
Modula-3 - solutions not multi-platform are not likely to be accepted...
And while it's relatively easy to wrte your Modula-3 code multiplatfom,
taking care of C(++) libraries can be real pain....

Thus said - I can tell you one thing - JUST DO IT :). I don't see a
problem if my projects work only on Linux - once I have incentive to go
through a hassle to make it work on Windows, I'll synchronize. But it's
important to to many things with Modula-3 - more will come a lot easier.

On Fri, 2010-01-22 at 06:33 +1100, Peter McKinna wrote:
> I've been looking at this area a bit. I have just completed the
> interface to GLUT which should be ready to commit in a few weeks as
> soon as i get a few more examples tested. This gives you the
> conventional opengl/X linking. Its taken a while to get my head around
> swig which seems a better way to feed into the C world. I have also
> nearly completed a new interface for mysql giving it a safe M3
> interface and gives the complete mysql.h api. I was thinking of using
> swig for the gtk bindings but not sure how well the c++ mappings are
> handled 
>  
> regards Peter 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Chris <Highjinks at gmx.com> wrote:
>         It looks like most of the libs(Trestle, X11R4, OpenGL, etc...)
>         in m3-ui haven't been touched or updated since the early 90s.
>         
>         Seems like modernising it might attract some more developers.
>         i.e. Bring the X interface up to date(X11R6) and support
>         things like DRM, XRandr, etc... And update OpenGL for NURBS,
>         VBOs, etc...
>         Trestle is easy to write for, but it really is butt ugly.
>         
>         Is anyone else looking at this area of the system?
>         
>         
>         --
>         Chris <Highjinks at gmx.com>
> 
-- 
Dragiša Durić <dragisha at m3w.org>