Domain: willows.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to willows.com.
Comments · 6
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Re:nonsenseThere are plenty of solutions for running Windows DLLs on Linux, as well as for compiling Windows source code to run on Linux natively (e.g., Willow TWIN).
Even if there weren't, of if they can't use it for licensing reasons, it's easy to find the OS/library calls that a piece of software makes and write a wrapper that it can life in.
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Re:BOCHS + WINE in MacOS X?
look for the windows emulator twin it didnt run to well last i tried but probably about as well as wine did but it includes a complete x86 emulator which means running windows programs on mac, dunno if its being actively developered tho.
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cross platform toolkitsI looked into this recently, and here are a bunch of suggestions/evaluations:
- Java 1.2. Technically, I think this is by far the best choice: easy to program, robust, extensive built-in APIs, etc. But you need to somehow get a Java 1.2 runtime onto your clients machines, and it still isn't efficient enough for number crunching (if that's part of your application).
- FLTK Small, cross-platform (Linux, Windows,
...), straightforward C++ GUI toolkit. You can link your applications statically and they are still small enough to distribute. It includes a GUI builder. Good OpenGL support. Has its on look-and-feel. Versions 1.x still lack drag-and-drop and dynamic widget layout support. - wxWindows Very complete C++ GUI toolkit, cross platform between Linux, Windows, MacOS. Lots of widgets. Drag-and-drop support and dynamic layout. Uses platform look-and-feel. Very MFC-like, including the use of event tables for event routing. Steeper learning curve. GUI builder doesn't seem to be quite ready yet.
- Qt Commercial toolkit. Pretty good quality. But you need an expensive, per-developer license unless you do open source. I don't think it's worth the money or hassle compared to wxWindows.
- Willows Supoprts genuine Windows programming on Linux, in an open source environment. (I haven't looked much into how complete it is because I don't actually like genuine Windows programming
:-) - GTK There is a Windows port as well as C++ bindings. I don't think the Windows port is far enough along yet for deployment, though.
- Tcl/Tk The Tk toolkit comes with a scripting language you may not want, and, out of the box, it has a fairly limited widget set by modern standards. No drag-and-drop support. Multiple GUI builders. Great canvas class. Exceptionally easy to get started with, great for prototyping.
- Fox Toolkit In may ways like FLTK. Has drag-and-drop support, but cross platform is still a promise.
Altogether, if you can deploy Java 1.2 and it's efficient enough for your needs (for most applications, it is), I'd go with that. If you need something in C++, I'd stick with wxWindows, FLTK, or Tcl/Tk, depending on your specific needs and preferences. I think you may also want to reconsider whether you really want an IDE and GUI builder; I find writing GUIs by hand in toolkits that are set up for it is ultimately faster and easier.
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Re:Ever heard of CygWin?
The major difference between MainWin and this being CygWin is open source.
No, the major difference between MainWin and Cygwin is that they go in opposite directions; MainWin provides a Win32 API atop UNIX-compatible OSes, while Cygwin provides a UNIX API atop Win32 OSes. If you want to contrast Cygwin to a non-open-source UNIX-apps-atop-Windows product, contrast it with Interix, and if you want to contrast MainWin with open-source Windows-apps-atop-UNIX software, contrast it with Wine or TWIN or Twine, say.
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Re:WABII never said that Wabi was cancelled because of Linux. I did say that Sun's move to mothball it, rather than open source a product that was no longer selling, indicates it's more interested in strategically pushing its own plans than it is in helping the open source community.
Contrast Sun's actions wrt Wabi with the decision to LGPL the Willows TWIN software when the company decided it wasn't going to sell. Now TWIN is a part of helping Wine be ready for prime time.
Wabi could have also helped Wine, but Sun chose to kill the software and orphan its users because it wanted to strategically push Java instead of emulation.
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Corel is using Wine libs, not Wine itself
(Yes, I'm a Windows vendor looking to port to Linux, one of 1000's more to come, I am sure).
You might also check out Willows which produces Twin, which is a commercial (albiet free in some circumstances) product similar to Winelib. It includes an implementation of the Windows APIs and MFC.
I'd like to see Winelib be successful in the long run, but in the short run, Willows' product may be a better fit for you.