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Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 09:20:25 -0400
From: PJ Cabrera <pjc_apache@alias.hotpop.com>
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To: harmony-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: GNU Classpath 0.16 "Harmony!" released
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 > On Jul 8, 2005, at 5:46 AM, Tim Ellison wrote:
 >
 > > Can we reach a concensus on getting something started on Windows/
 > > x86 and Linux/i386 initially (as the popular development platforms)?

On 7/10/05, Geir Magnusson Jr. <geirm@apache.org> wrote:
 >
 > That works for me, but we'll be adding OS X as that's my platform,
 > and I suspect for now will be my problem :)

I'm also using OS X as my personal dev platform, so I'll help with this 
"problem" as I can.

And a big problem it is. If we go with GNU Classpath as the basis of the 
Harmony API, AWT and Swing will depend on GTK+ 2.4 being installed on 
OSX, through DarwinPorts or Fink. And X11 needs to be running to display 
the GTK+ based widgets. Note I'm not putting GNU Classpath down, the 
GTK+ problem is more an issue with OSX not having an Aqua implementation 
of GTK+ 2.x.

In my not so humble opinion, SwingWT is a better alternative, as it uses 
SWT to implement Swing. SWT on Unixen and Linux, it uses either Motif or 
GTK+ 2.0. The lower requirement means it can run on Debian Woody, for 
example, with OpenMotif. With GTK+ 2.0, it can run on RedHat Linux 7.0 
and variants. These are still deployed in some parts of the world. We 
don't want to leave those users without a fully-certified FOSS JVM, do we?

And on Windows and Mac OS, SWT uses native widgets. So the majority of 
those users don't have to go through complicated or unnecessary 
installations/incantations just to run a fully-certified FOSS JVM.

This is just the top usability problem when trying to build and run 
SableVM and GNU Classpath on OSX the other day. There are build problems 
still to be resolved "the right way" (I just hacked the makefiles to get 
it to build, and had to use Fink to get many of the requirement 
packages, as they weren't part of the base OSX full dev tools install.)

Again, just my not so humble opinion. Flame-retardant suit is on order 
for next-day delivery. :-)

PJ Cabrera
< pjcabrera at snapplatform dot org >

http://snapplatform.org
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