--- "Page, Bill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But we should be clear I think, that this is not necessarily > the shortest path to a fully functioning version of Axiom on > Windows. The linux version of Axiom does not now use tcl/tk > for Graphics and Hypertex, i.e. those parts of Axiom that are > not already ported to Microsoft Windows. Instead these currently > depend directly on the X windows libraries. These should perhaps > be re-implemented in tcl/tk linux first before attempting the > port to Windows.
I wasn't able to attend the conference :-(, and in discussing this possibility I'm admittedly skating on vapor trails and assuming skills I don't currently have, but if at some point in the future a QT4 backend was written for McCLIM and somebody (me for the sake of discussion anyway) implimented a GUI CAS interface in it, would that be of interest to Axiom? QT4 will be available as GPL for both Windows and Linux, which will make it an attractive target for an McCLIM backend. (GTK is available but I find myself drawn more toward QT. Of course, this doesn't rule out a GTK backend either. Hehe - maybe one could write one program with a native look on BOTH KDE and Gnome :-D.) I am pondering undertaking a backend attempt once QT4 comes out for the sake of creating a Maxima GUI which is a) lisp based and b) cross platform. If Scigraph can be made to work and be extended as needed, this would also provide lisp based graphics in a cross platform manner. The half-mythical Stix fonts may also be out by then (at long last their site was updated - drool.) Logically much of this should translate relatively easily to Axiom - in fact it should mainly be an issue of translating between McCLIM constructs and Axiom syntax, with the added non-trivial wrinkle of line breaking. (Who knows - McCLIM+QT4 might just become the best thing for cross platform native GUI programming since Java, if the planets align right :-). Lisp will rise once more!) I suppose I'm biased against tcl/tk but the Maxima experience with it has not been terribly positive, and it's not what I tend to think of when I think robust graphics. Perhaps this is just my lack of knowledge. > Because of this X windows dependency the shortest path, > though admittedly not necessarily the best path, for fully > implementing Axiom on Windows would probably be to use Cygwin. > Currently GCL on windows uses MinGW instead of Cygwin to > compile to native Windows but unlike Cygwin MinGW does not > provided an X windows compatible environment. True. MinGW is the best available free solution for stand alone Windows binaries though, at least to my knowledge. And Windows users + X applications, in my experience, does not a happy mix make. > I think using native Windows applications on Windows is a > wothwhile target but it is sometimes hard for applications > that originate on linux/Unix. Amen. To both. [snip partial cygwin solution] > Of course there are drawbacks. Using *both* MSYS/MinGW and > Cygwin under Windows would further complicate the Windows > build environment for Axiom. Currently there is no Cygwin > version of GCL. Further, the X windows user interface under > Cygwin might seem a little awkward for some Microsoft > Windows users. But it should still be possible to prepare an > auto-installation binary distribution that would make much > of this transparent for users who are not interested in > building Axiom from source. It will be HUGE, but yes, that might be workable. I can't imagine how Windows users would react to an Xlib base GUI - GTK is bad enough. Still, it's a case of any GUI being much better than none, and recent versions of Cygwin X can at least operate on a per-window basis rathern than desktop only, so in theory it should work. [snip] > Yes! I think that would be a great step forward. I think > Axiom should conform more closely to the de facto norm > for building open source software. I'll second that! The make install process still goes wonky for me on Gentoo, and I have seen a second report of the same behavior so it's probably not just my screwed up system. CY __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Gcl-devel mailing list Gcl-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gcl-devel
