RE: New xlauncher (was: Re: Success with Java prog in XFree)

[Nicholas Wourms <nwourms at yahoo dot com>]

--- Tim Thomson <tim@tui.dhs.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-07-15 at 16:33, Harold Hunt wrote:
> > For future reference, the xlauncher-style program is on my list of
> things to
> > do.  I want it done in straight C or C++ interfacing the GDI manually.
>  I
> > don't want dependencies on cumbersome libraries, and I don't want any
> > non-free compiler languages involved.  This xlauncher will remain on
> my
> > to-do list until it is written to the above specs, regardless of
> whether or
> > not someone comes up with a really slick xlauncher that depends on
> > super-duper-library-foo.  I don't care about super-duper-library-foo,
> I just
> > want to be able to spend a small amount of time in order to contribute
> to a
> > program with an arguably small scope.
> 
> So wxWindows is also out? 
> I was hoping for a cross platform xlauncher, as it would also be useful
> under a linux/*nix system using Xnest. 

Until someone provides the runtime libraries as part of the Cygwin dist,
I'd have to say yes.  Also, Harold seems dead set against these rather
bloated cross-platform libraries.
 
> I don't know a way to get cross platform support easily without using a
> library of some kind, and wxWindows seems to be the best, it's been
> around for ten years, and has a _lot_ of functionality.

If you are really serious about this, then follow the directions at:

http://cygwin.com/setup.html

To package the wxWindows runtime and development libraries for the cygwin
platform.  If you are *really* serious, once gtk for cygwin is released,
you could provide the gtk/X11 version of wxWindows for cygwin as well.

> I understand your concern at depending on libraries, and I guess
> compiling a static binary won't satisfy your needs?

Aviod the bloat, provide a wxWindows dll to the distribtion.
 
> The only other way I can see to do this is to do a complete rewrite of
> the program per OS, to utilise each systems native framework. There
> would be very little portable code between each version.

Not necessarily.  The current maintainer of rxvt has managed to create an
awesome terminal client that works in both X and as a native win32 app. 
He did it by using Donald Becker's libW11, which translates calls to
libX11 into win32api calls.  Unfortunately, he is running short on time
atm and hasn't got much time to improve on the libW11 port to cygwin. 
Since libW11 is already a part of cygwin, you have met Harold's
requirements that it not be dependant on some super-duper-foo-library. 
Also, it avoids unnecessary memory hogging by an xserver running in
"rootless" mode.  If you are curious, check out the source package for
rxvt, which contains the libW11 source.  Also check out the rxvt README in
/usr/doc/Cygwin for infomation on how he did his port and how you can
contact him.

> Writing it as an X app once rootless mode works could be an option, as
> we would only have to write for an X framework, and not for Win32. This
> sounds like overkill to me though.

I agree, no need for the bloat of an xserver running in "rootless" mode
just to use a startup launcher.

Cheers,
Nicholas

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