Re: GNUstep on MS Windows

[Fred Kiefer]

Chris Hanson wrote:
> 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.

Hi Chris,

is this a statement that you are going to work on this? If so wonderful, 
your help will be appreciated. If not you should choose your words a bit 
more careful. There is now way  you, or anybody else may influence what 
anybody is doing in the GNUstep project. If you produce commercial 
software, as you did write in your other mail, you are used to do what 
you get paid for. This is different here as (almost) nobody gets paid 
for their contribution to GNUstep. If you want to donate a curtain 
amount of money for a secific development direction you are free to do 
so, still you can never be sure if anybody will take up that offer. 
Otherwise, the best way to see a specific feature you want is to 
implement a patch yourself and send that to the mailing lists.

Sorry, I might be a bit over sensitive on the Windows backend issue, but 
just compare the discussion on this with the actual contribution and you 
will understand. So what about stopping all this mails on what should be 
done and getting down to use the keyboard in a more productive way?

Fred