RE: [Gcl-devel] Re: [Axiom-developer] axiom graphics and porting

[Mike Thomas]

Hi Camm.

| 1) How good is gtk (as opposed to tk) on Windows?

I haven't used it to write software.  It was ported by Tor Lillqvist to
port the GIMP to Windows.

In terms of end user experience with the GIMP on Windows it seems to be
entirely usable if somewhat clunky and very large and intrusive (you
apparently have to install GTK separately, taking multi-megabytes for all of
the emulation machinery).

I note that the GHC and Moscow ML Glib/GTK bindings each seem to be fairly
sleepy if not dead on Windows - presumably lack of interest or technical
issues or both.


| 2) I remember us discussing the gcl-tk issues on Windows, but cannot
|    find the thread at the moment.  My understanding is that the issue
|    lies in the socket emulation.

Yes, or at least the interprocess communication at some level.


|  How difficult is this to fix?

Relatively simple - I would happily support such a move for 2.7 or even
2.6.7.

|  Do
|    you have an estimate in terms of time?

No.

|  What could I do from the
|    Linux side to assist?

The usual well received debugging/moral support I suppose.

| 3) Is there an easy analog for an xgcl type interface on Windows?

No.

| 4) Does the recent patch I just posted on run-process work for
|    windows?

No; not because of the patch which applies and compiles, but because of
pre-existing problems which I will try to address later this week.

Cheers

Mike Thomas.