From: "Christopher Nelson" <paradox AT gye DOT satnet DOT net>
To: <djgpp AT delorie DOT com>
Subject: Re: DJGPP: the future is... ?
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 12:18:44 -0700
Message-ID: <01be7886$a17c9600$LocalHost@thendren>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com



>Bernard P. Murray, PhD wrote:
>> Wish 2.
>> DJGPP for the Mac.  Yes, I realise that this is highly
>> unlikely but I have to use a Mac at work and they will
>> not let me install Linux.  As far as I know there's no
>> standalone gcc port for the Mac (just Mac-Perl and
>> Mac-GAWK).
>
>If you're a Slashdotter like me, you'll notice that Apple has started an
>Open Source-ish program, and it seems that quite a few people have begun to
>port GNU software to its platform (the name evades me). I'd watch for gcc,
>g++, egcs, etc. there.
>
>> Wish 3.
>> A stable X-Windowing system-compatible GUI for DOS.
>
>I'd like to see that, too. Anyone else interested? I posted earlier about
my
>trying to organize the writing of a windowing system w/ Allegro, but if a
>group of people want to port X, I'd happily agree to take a major part in
>it. Heck, I'll coodinate it if you want. Fun, fun, fun!
>


I also think that this is an excellent idea.  And there's really no reasons
not to use Allegro as the foundation for the graphics interface.  It's fast,
very optimized, and very stable.  It has a huge user base, and is
sufficiently generalized to allow us to use it for the graphics server.

Which is not to say that we should use it's dialog method, since, even Shawn
Hargraeves admits that they're mostly apt for quick-and-dirty interfaces.
This is really the biggest thing that is missing.

I personally don't like Windows that much at all, but I do note that it has
standardized a lot of things.  This is a "good thing" for users.  A
windowing/GUI system that is sufficiently general to accept different
"low-level" graphics servers would be an excellent help, since most people
have to write their own, and then users must learn a new interface w/ each
different program.  And the whole reason that people wanted to move away
from DOS is it's lack of comfortable, standardized GUI interfaces.

I moved away from Windows programming because it creates too much overhead
burden, and is severely irritating in many ways.  A GUI which could be used
without taking over the application would be really cool.

                    -={C}=-