Swarm -> Windows-NT...

[cgl]

Vladimir raised the issue of a port of Swarm to Windows...

Well, coincidentally, we are in the process of negotiating 
support from a large company to do just that...

  However, rather than a specific port of Swarm to Windows,
we will go the route of making Swarm platform independent
by replacing the current TK/Tcl / BLT / X-windows GUI 
interface with a JAVA-based GUI. This should not
have any real impact on user apps, as we already provide
a set of GUI independent routines in Swarm, so we will 
just translate them into JAVA GUI calls instead of TK/Tcl
calls. 

  We expect to be done by the fall.

  We have already determined that Swarm could be ported to
Win-NT, using TK/Tcl stuff that is already available
in that environment, but that would not be the right thing,
and with a port of the Swarm GUI to Java, we will be able
to rid ourselves of many of the installation problems 
associated with the TK/TCL and BLT packages that have
plagued Swarm....

  We'd welcome comments and suggestions on this path. We
haven't actually closed the deal, but, barring surprises, we 
should be closing pretty soon.

  And just to reassure Benedikt, we are subcontracting
this work out, so it will not distract us from our
documentation efforts ;-)

  Chris Langton


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