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Content-type: text/plain
---- Original von: CFB Software <info{([at]})nowhere.xy
> I agree with Doug. Component Pascal / Oberon code can be written to
>be reasonably portable, but the very moment you start making calls to
>library functions that are part of the host operating system the
>difficulties start. Even simple tasks like opening a file and reading it
>can be difficult to transfer from ETH Oberon to POW! to BlackBox to CP
>for .NET etc. Visual components add another dimension of problems and
>it doesn't stop there. Consider the difficulties of trying to port more
>complex user interfaces like data-aware grids to make them as effective
>as the native equivalent on each platform!
>
>Any attempts to make complete environments portable suffer from two
>problems - either
>a) the lowest common denominator approach has to be used, resulting in
>a system that is less than useless
>
>b) the resulting system is so foreign to the users of all of the host
>environments that it is not accepted
>
Maybe I'm just a bit dense, but I don't think the above is entirely true.
1) BB has low-level modules and high-level modules. You can change the low-level modules (which deal with hardware) without affecting the high-levels. That's what component orientation is all about, isn't it? Yes, it is impossible to port BB to let's say UNIX, without good knowledge of UNIX. But to him who has good knowledge AND the BB sources, it is not an extreme task.
2) I don't see why one should not apply a greatest common denominator approach. Yes, it would be limited, but that holds true simply for every implementation of BB! There are features of Windows that are not formulated within the BB framework, yet this does not make BB useless. But anyhow, I'd argue for a lowest common multiple approach. When porting BB from system A to system B, every visual component not existant in B has to be implemented. And with the next release of A, those not existant in A but used in B have to implemented in A. I don't think that this would lead to a "foreign look" either, because the "native" visual components ARE native, the foreign can be differently in their layout on both systems, as long as their behavior internally is equal. Yes, it takes a lot of manpower to workout such a solution, but in an open source framework, this should not be that much of a problem, I guess.
3) There could also be a third approach, and I think this one is most compatible with the spirit of Oberon. Since we talk of an open framework, every installation IS different. Therefor, there is no need for each and every component to be availlable on each and every platform. If you as a programmer need a component that is unavaillable, just program it. Yes, this limits the opportunities of component portability, because you first have to check that the component you want to use can be integrated easily, but I don't think that this is so much of a problem. To approach that question pragmatically: Which vc is availlable in the current BB, which you do not have in Java, in .Net or in LindowsOS? I don't think that there are many. So porting BB to those environments/platforms cannot change the usefulness of BB in any reasonable way. With good documentations on how to integrate vcs of the underlying native system (i.e. the source code, for instance), it becomes quite easy to evo!
lve from there.
Am I making any sense?
Rene
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Received on Fri Oct 22 2004 - 13:03:05 UTC