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Re: Cygwin, tcl/tk, and "native" [Was: Re: Interest in "native"Tcl/Tk/Expect/Itcl/... packages?]
On Fri, 15 Oct 2004, Charles Wilson wrote:
> In the interests of clarity, let's agree on some terminology:
>
> a "cygwin" version --
> uses the cygwin1.dll for runtime services (like printf etc)
>
> a "native windows" version
> uses msvcrt.dll for runtime services
>
> an "X" version
> uses xlib calls to draw stuff on a display
> this requires a xserver of some kind
>
> And here's the tricky one:
>
> a "GDI" version
> uses the Windows Graphics Device Interface calls to draw
> stuff on a display -- WITHOUT using an Xlib emulator.
> no Xserver needed.
>
> ------------------
>
> Using these terms, what we already have is
> cygwin, GDI
>
> ActiveState provides a
> native, GDI
>
> What is being proposed is
> cygwin, X
Hear, hear!
> Contrary to Jean-Sebastien Trottier's assertion, replacing the current
> "cygwin, GDI" implementation with the "native, GDI" ActiveState version
> will NOT satisfy the current requirements of insight/gdb and other
> existing cygwin packages.
>
> Somehow, a way must be found to have both a "cygwin, GDI" version of
> tcl/tk/etc and a "cygwin, X" version -- where both can coexist on the
> same machine seamlessly, making it easy to use for the end user and
> develop against for the developer.
>
> This is a hard problem, since it requires proper installation and
> handling of DLLs, import libs, configure scripts (/usr/lib/tclConfig.sh
> and /usr/lib/tkConfig.sh), and include files. I am overjoyed to see
> someone interested in tackling the issue.
Rxvt already does this. Do tk/itk make GDI calls that aren't covered by
rxvt's W11 library? If so, wouldn't a more worthwhile investment of
effort be to extend the W11 library with the implementation of the
appropriate X11 calls (by plundering the tk/itk GDI implementation as
needed), and then use the W11 library in the same way as rxvt does.
HTH,
Igor
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