Re: GNAT on Win 95

[griest-tom@cs.yale.edu (Tom Griest)]

pontius@twonky.btv.ibm.com (Dale Pontius) writes:

someone wrote:
>>While I'm sort of on the same topic, I hope the relevant folks are
>>paying attention to the Win32 API that's in the process of coming
>>out, I believe through the Cygnus GnuWin32 folks.  There's an opportunity
>>for some synergy here, I believe.  I apologize for not knowing the
>>name of the author; this represents a tremendous amount of work.
>>-----
DP>How does GNUWin32 compare/relate to WINE?
DP>
DP>This is the first I've heard of it. So far I'd heard of WINE and
DP>Willow, and various Public Windows proposals.

WINE is a way to _run_ Windows programs, whereas GnuWin32 is a way
to _develop_ Win32 programs.  That is WINE is a way to substitute
Linux for Windows, and GnuWin32 is a way to substitue for a Win32 SDK.
I'm not familiar with Willow, but I've heard of attempts to develop 
something like WINE32.  I really think getting a public WINE32 
implementation would be a good thing.  Although it is hard to tell 
what impact such things will have in the long run, it would provide 
more alternatives in the marketplace.

Although the Win32 API is not as "clean" of a specification as I
would like, the underlying functionality of Win32 is actually 
very good (IMHO).  Given the number of platforms (Intel, MIPS, PowerPC,
and Alpha) and shear number of systems that run Win32 (WinNT & Win95), it 
is a pretty sure bet that it will be a primary interface to program to
for some time to come.

-Tom