[Axiom-developer] Re: Windows front end

[Bill Page]

Tim,

On Thu, 28 Nov 2002 10:35:20 -0500 you wrote:
> ... 
> OpenInventor, eh? Sigh, yet another thing to learn.
> TeXmacs has potential but does not currently run on
> Windows. If it did it would solve a fair number of
> issues.
> ...

Actually, TeXmacs *does* run on Windows. The only drawback
is that it requires that the user install at least a
minimal Cygwin environment plus the XFree86 x-server.
What is means in real terms is adding a Cygwin-specific
library (dll) which provides most of the standard Linux
api. Running the x-server opens a new Windows window that
looks (for the most part) just like Linux minus the fancy
window manager (KDE or whatever). TeXmacs runs in this
window and can interact with other windows applications.

The installation is a bit complex since it is not most
people's intention to only install a minimal x-server
environment. But I think I could package it fairly well.
In addition to this added complexity, the main drawback
is a sacrifice of performance compared to native windows
applications. It seems that the Cygwin unix emulation is
not particularly efficient.

Regards,
Bill Page.