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From: pontius@btv.ibm.com (Dale Pontius)
Subject: Re: Platform independent GUI bindings...
Date: 1997/01/28
Message-ID: <5cl05e$tak@mdnews.btv.ibm.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 212763894
references: <32EC150C.5082@ibm.net> <1997Jan27.064225.1@eisner>
content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
organization: IBM Microelectronics Division
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newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-01-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In article <1997Jan27.064225.1@eisner>,
        kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen) writes:
> In article <32EC150C.5082@ibm.net>, Marc Bejerano <marcb02@ibm.net> writes:
>
>> Does anyone have a recommendation for platform-independent GUI bindings
>> in Ada95? I need OS/2 PM, Windows, and X11 bindings but I don't want to
>> have to recode the application for each platform. Any help and/or ideas
>> would be MOST helpful as I really do NOT want to write one myself.
>
> How about IBM VisualAge ? The demo that OC Systems had for their Ada
> add-on at TRI-Ada showed what one would expect to be a Windows NT
> tabbed dialog box with an appearance resembling an OS/2 property
> sheet, but you must accept those little nits when you decide that
> you are not willing to code separately for each GUI style.
>
IBM OpenClass is C++, and I haven't seen much about mapping C++
classes into Ada.

I can think of four other suggestions:

Java awt : The Java GUI toolkit. I haven't used it, but I'm under the
  impression that it's not terribly complete. Still, it's the closest
  thing to a Universal GUI you'll find. Plus over time, it's likely
  to get the necessary improvements.

OpenDoc ODF : OpenDoc Framework. Currently available only on Mac,
  but it is supposed to be spreading to the other OpenDoc platforms.

Tcl/Tk : Use Tcl/Tk wrappers around you Ada, and build the GUI that
  way. I believe they're available on all the platforms you speak of.
  You may even be able to call the GUI parts directly from Ada.

V : http://www.cs.unm.edu/~wampler  There is not currently an OS/2
  version, but it appears to be in the works.

Qt : Don't have reference, check Linux newsgroups. No OS/2 version,
  but it doesn't sound impossible.

Win32 : After all, Win95, WinNT on x86, and WinNT on Alpha should be
  all the cross-platform anyone needs. (Insert tongue-in-cheek/irony
  emoticon here.)

Dale Pontius
(NOT speaking for IBM)