nanogui: Request for comments - Microwindows
Subject:
Request for comments - Microwindows
From:
Greg Haerr ####@####.####
Date:
4 Oct 1999 18:18:25 -0000
Message-Id: <01BF0E62.3F49D390.greg@censoft.com>
I am considering some bigger changes to the graphics engine
project I've been working on the last six months. I'd like to get
your comments before I go headlong into this. Following are
some of the changes being considered:
Move to Xlib reimplementation. I've been thinking that the
proper way to go with the microwindows project is to build a close
resemblance to Xlib, much like I've done with the win32 api portion.
This would allow, for instance, with little effort, the graphics applications
that currently use Gtk on top of Gdk on top of Xlib to be ported to
all the systems that microwindows supports with very little effort.
Also, the Xlib reference manual could be used for most instances
to learn about the micro-X api.
License under LGPL. All of the code I've written,
which includes all of microwindows and all the enhancements
to mini-X, can be easily licensed this way. But the nano-X
project has a large core of GrXXX routines that were originally
written by David Bell, and his license is completely unrestrictive,
except that his copyright notice must still be included. So
we can't downgrade his license to LGPL. This means that
his code can't be used if this project goes strictly MPL or LGPL.
One idea is to contact David, another is to rewrite it as Xlib.
Reorganize source code so that micro-Win32 and micro-X
can both be worked on simultaneously. Currently, the source
is organized with win32 getting the "upper hand". The win32 reimplementation
would be placed in a subdirectory from the engine code. The
Xlib reimplementation would be placed in a subdirectory under the engine
code. Thus, Xlib development could proceed much more quickly,
without having to know anything about win32.
In this way, the MicroWindows project goal
could become "A micro-reimplementation of the Xlib and Win32
api's, catering to small size and speed of porting, on Linux[CE,86] platforms."
Comments?
Greg
