From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id LAA12774; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:53:19 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA13058 for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:53:18 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mel-rto2.wanadoo.fr (smtp-out-2.wanadoo.fr [193.252.19.254]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id g769rH101250 for ; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:53:18 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mel-rta9.wanadoo.fr (193.252.19.69) by mel-rto2.wanadoo.fr (6.5.007) id 3D49FBEC001A6167; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:53:13 +0200 Received: from warp (80.13.116.114) by mel-rta9.wanadoo.fr (6.5.007) id 3D49FFB70019585A; Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:53:13 +0200 Message-ID: <000d01c23d2f$0b977df0$0700a8c0@warp> From: "Nicolas Cannasse" To: Cc: References: <20020805164038.A21811@pauillac.inria.fr> <20020805120530.A11782@ontosys.com> Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Yet Another Compilation Question: lablgtk for windows + cygwin-mingw Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 11:52:57 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk > One last, general comment. (Climbing on my soapbox.) The GNU > > compilers, OCaml, GTK. lablgtk, etc, are all software projects that > > are developed primarily under Unix, and then ported to Windows. While > > each of these ports are done carefully and with considerable ingenuity, > > Windows is not Unix and minor differences or inconsistencies remain in > > each port. These minor issues are usually workable when you use only > > one port, but can become a real headache when you pile up port over > > port over port. What I am coming at is that unless you like to suffer > > and are ready to solve these issues yourself, it doesn't make much > > sense to develop an OCaml+lablgtk+GTK program under Windows. > > I've been planning to build an interactive application with OCaml that > will be deployed primarily on Windows, so I'd like to understand your > warning better. As an windows ocaml user for some time now, I'll try to answer your questions > 1. Is the risk just in developing (compiling, packaging) on Windows, > or also in deploying to Windows? As Xavier answered, deploying under windows is easier than under Unix . You can package binaries quite easily without even the need for the end-user to install Ocaml ( DLL's since 3.04 simplified lots of things ) About developing, I'm currently compiling and running OCaml code from MSVC++ :) It's quite confortable this way, even if an OCaml IDE would be better. > 2. What do you mean by "piling port after port"? Do you mean > reworking the application to track changes as the various tools > (GNU+OCaml+labltk+GTK) evolve in successive releases? Has this > been a big problem in applications such as Unison? (Or any > other broadly deployed OCaml app? I don't know of others.) > > 3. Is there some other GUI framework that you expect will entail less > suffering than lablgtk+GTK? I've been developping Osiris, an OCaml class-based GUI system which is built on top of the Win32 API OCaml Port (still partial, but complete enough to work with). If you're willing to develop GUIs for windows-only, Osiris may be a good choice. If you're willing to develop cross-platform applications, I have been thinking for few month now to write a GTK port of Osiris... when I'll have some free time :) > 4. As the porting problem applies to the GNU compilers and OCaml > itself, are you warning us against developing OCaml applications > for use on Windows? Don't worry, the ratio ( INRIA support ) / (number of window users) is quite high :) Nicolas Cannasse ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners