Hi Ron, It's certainly not too late. Personally, I'd *love* to dump GTK# and just use WinForms for the Linux version (which, as you may have already discovered, the 0.95 source doesn't build yet...we're trying to find some time to sync the code) as it would eliminate the need to maintain two code bases for the presentation layer. In fact, when we first started the whole mono initiative, we tried to use WinForms. Unfortunately, at the time (Jan 2006), WinForms on Mono was far too unstable for us to use it. I haven't tinkered with it lately, but from what I've read (and what you're alluding to), things have improved significantly. That said, there are still a few issues with using WinForms on Mono:
1) WinForms on Mono is, for the most part, WinForms 1.1. ClearCanvas uses WinForms 2.0, which has toolstrips, etc. 2) We use a commercial, closed source (though we do have the code) UI library called DotNetMagic (you can just Google it) that uses some Win32 specific calls. This would obviously be problematic on Mono. 3) At this point, we simply do not have the time to convert the Mono version to WinForms. The way I see it, none of these problems are unsurmountable. Issues 1 and 2 can be dealt with in a few possible ways: a) Write new WinForms 1.1 presentation layer plugins and don't use the DotNetMagic library. It won't be as pretty looking, but it would certainly still be functional. b) DotNetMagic actually comes with source code--we just cannot distribute it. Someone could buy a license of DotNetMagic and modify it somehow to make it run on Mono. This of course is risky, since I can't say for sure whether it can actually be done. c) Wait until Mono supports WinForms 2.0. This still doesn't solve the DotNetMagic problem, but it at least simplifies things a bit, since our existing WinForm 2.0 code can be left untouched. The downside is that it'll be a bit of a wait. Issue 3 can be dealt with if there is someone in the open source community who would be willing to work on all of this. At this point, we're committed to synchronizing the 0.95 code base so that it'll at least build on Mono and offer some very basic functionality, but beyond that, we simply don't have the time. When we first started ClearCanvas, the hope was that it would be cross-platform (i.e., Windows, Linux and Mac) because of Mono. I still hold on to that hope! :) I think it would be rather unfortunate if CC became a Windows only application. So, if you, or anyone you know feels at home with developing on Linux and might be interested in maintaining CC on Mono, please let us know. Norman On 11/9/06, Ron Sweeney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I just got started tinkering with this project, but I have to beg the > question... > > Is it too late to stop and re-address win forms instead of GTK# ? > > Recent changes with Microsoft and the release of the new mono lend to better > handling of winforms > and new interop with Linux and Windows... > > The new mono: > > http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061109/sfth025.html?.v=77 > > News of Interop > > http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-02MSNovellPR.mspx > thoughts? > > > > > -- > Ron Sweeney > Academic Medical Imaging - Western Michigan > <http://www.ami-westmi.info> > ClubPACS Western Michigan > < http://www.clubpacswestmi.net/> > > _______________________________________________ > dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://clearcanvas.ca/mailman/listinfo/dev_clearcanvas.ca > > > -- Norman Young President & Founder ClearCanvas Inc. 416-340-4800 x5954 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ dev mailing list [email protected] http://clearcanvas.ca/mailman/listinfo/dev_clearcanvas.ca
