Re: GNUstep on MS Windows

[Mathias Picker]

Am Friday 05 December 2003 10:36 schrieb Björn Giesler:
> Hi,
>
> about this look and feel thing, a couple of observations:
>
> 1. I distinctly remember seeing a NeXT demo at CeBit Hannover (don't recall
> the year) where an OpenStep program was built on black hardware and then
> transmuted from NeXT to Win look and feel and back, all while the program
> was running on the same NeXT machine. So that strongly suggests THEY
> emulated widgets and didn't use native ones. And why should they use native
> widgets? Alex, you state that the fact that "[GNUstep draws it's onw
> Widgets] [...] needs to change", but don't give a reason. Please elaborate.
> [snipping lots of good stuff]

I just follow this discussion on the bylines (I'm no programmer and currently 
busy full-time anyway) and found this mail to be one of the few useful ones 
in this thread. I do not quite understand the emotional and dogmatic voice of 
some of the other mails ("there has to", "only way",...). 

And I fully agree with the conclusion: first get it up at all, then emulate 
windows look and (partly, please) feel and then (if needed) integrate the 
menu. 

And I also agree with some of the other mails: think of completing it on *ix 
first. At least on FreeBSD some apps (e.g. GNUmail) crash a lot, some dialogs 
do not work as I expect (e.g. passwd dialogs do not react to pressing 
"Enter", I need the mouse, which is awful) and there are a lot of unpolished 
edges.


*** And lastly, even if it should have been first: 

*** I'm so _very_ glad that I can have at least some tiny little first 
features of *step back, and want to thank all involved. I'm no programmer, 
just a user, but I'm just glad it got so far - no, you brought it so far. To 
see services working (even if there aren't many) is just _so_ cool. Never 
understood why other desktops didn't take this up....

So, thanks for the work up to now and if you do a windows port, be sure to get 
it on the cheap. Do not spend more work than absolutely necessary.

Cheers, Mathias

-- 
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  Mathias Picker
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