Re: GNUstep on MS Windows

[Chris Hanson]

On Dec 6, 2003, at 8:50 AM, Pete French wrote:
> Isnt that all we need to do in GNustep to get the effect people are 
> asking
> for ? Seems like it to me. Can have a couple of themes - one for NT4 
> style
> buttons and one for XP buttons. That way it just drops in nicely to
> whatever is running.

That's enough for some developers.  However, other developers wanting 
to use GNUstep on Windows may also require additional features like 
Windows accessibility support, scripting support, and such.

I'd say, with respect to GNUstep for Windows:

(1) Get it working as it is right now (including ease of installation 
-- a double-clickable installer generated as part of the build process 
would rock).

(2) Add support for NSWindows95InterfaceStyle and 
NSWindowsXPInterfaceStyle to the Windows back-end.  This includes 
features like Windows' awful in-window menu bars and 
tab-to-every-control behavior, as well as interoperability with the 
Windows clipboard, drag-and-drop, the Windows Explorer, the Windows 
registry...

(3) Try some experiments with AWT-style peering to get true native 
widgets rather than lookalikes.

I'm moderating my position; I think #2 would be sufficient for many 
developers, as long as it was done well enough.  I think #3 may be 
necessary for some developers, but I certainly don't think GNUstep 
would be useless for commercial developers without it.

  -- Chris

--
Chris Hanson <cmh@bdistributed.com>
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