Re: [Newbie] Some cross-platform cocoa->win queries...

[Yann.Le Guen]

Hello Angus,

decembrer 9  2001 04:50:29, you wrote :

AG> Hi folks,

AG> I have some questions about using GNUStep on a couple of 
AG> largely-proprietary OSes.

AG> I want to port my application to Cocoa and Win32. It's currently 
AG> running on Classic MacOS, and I want to rewrite it from the ground up 
AG> (due to antiquated and ugly code in the old version which more "grew" 
AG> than was designed...)

AG> I'm pretty new to Cocoa and very new to Windows programming.

AG> I want to use a User Interface <-> Backend approach where the 
AG> "Backend" objects support the user interface but both are quite 
AG> autonymous. My backend mostly needs to use string and array routines, 
AG> but will also come to link to sound libraries (quite possibly 
AG> QuickTime, at least on MacOS) and use file access methods.

AG> I was hoping I could do the following:

AG> On Cocoa, write an AppKit interface and FoundationKit backend (model).

AG> On Windows, use GNUStep FoundationKit to incorporate the backend from 
AG> the Cocoa version and then use GRAPE (an Eiffel graphical interface 
AG> creation tool http://www.elj.com/elj-win32/grape) to make the 
AG> interface.

AG> GRAPE/Eiffel can both incorporate C/C++ directly or, if I first 
AG> compile the backend to a DLL, call API functions...

AG> My questions are:

AG> 1) Is it possible to do this?
Yes and No...

Yes:
because you can install Apple's Development Environment for Windows and
then port all your code from Classic Mac OS to Cocoa. I think Apple
provides a sample about how to do it with Stickies.app.

No:
because using GNUstep you'll finally face that gstep doesn't have a GUI
backend for Windows.

On Windows you can either use Apple's Foundation and /or GNUstep Base
Library + libFoundation and then rely on Apple's Frameworks for the GUI
part of you program.

You can also use JIGS (gstep Java bridge) to mix languages and
treat the GUI part of your program with Java... I've test this
solution and succeed on compiling and liking an "HelloWorld" test (it
took a bit long), don't ask me more about that, I just use Java if I've failed 
to
convince ones to adopt ObjC ;-)

AG> 2) Is it sane to try to do this? Should I bite the bullet, buy 
AG> Microsloth Visual C++, and re-write it all from the ground up again?

No comment

AG> 3) If it is possible to do what I hope, will my app become dependent 
AG> on so much GNUStep stuff that the average Windows user would not want 
AG> to download/install it?
Is someone afraid of GNUstep around ?

AG> 4) Is the FoundationKit stable on Win32?
Both Apple and GNUstep Foundation libraries are "satble" on W2K and
XP, AFAIK ;-)

AG> 5) Can I get away with it without using a M$ compiler (using 
AG> CYGWIN/gcc/lcc-win32?)
Cygwin compiler doesn't have an ObjC compiler, MinGW have one. You can
install Cygwin to benefit its tools and configure it to use MinGW ObjC
compiler

AG> 6) How's support for non-standard scripts, Unicode, etc. in the 
AG> FoundationKit? (this part will probably be mostly dependent on 
AG> GRAPE's support for Windows encoding types...)
No comment

AG> Any info, experiences, that anyone can relate would be _greatly_ 
AG> welcomed. I think the idea of GNUStep is just plain awesome; the 
AG> stories of taking Cocoa code and compiling it first-pop on Linux 
AG> sound too good to be true!!


AG> Angus



-- 
Later,
 Yann                           mailto:yann.le-guen@wanadoo.fr