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From: "Dave Smith" <dksmith@n_o__S_P_A_M__traveller.com>
Subject: Ada in control - Win32 GUI - Possible?
Date: 1997/11/03
Message-ID: <63m6qh$gpc$1@tsunami.traveller.com>#1/1
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Organization: Traveller Information Services
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-11-03T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Hello,

I posted a question a couple of weeks ago about Ada
being callable from Visual Basic (thanks for the many
replies).

My current question is related:

   Can an Ada program be in control of a Win32 GUI?

Actually, this is a simplification of my question.  I
am working in a situation where I cannot (in a cost-
effective manner) rewrite the existing Ada main program.
My application is a client (currently on an SG platform
w/ a Motif GUI) of a low-level "OS-ish" layer written in
Ada.  This layer is an API that exposes resources such
as shared memory, sockets, GPS time, and interfaces to
specialized high-speed networking cards.  This layer is
built for a heterogeneous environment (Suns, SGs, and
VME chasses).  Because many of these services need to be
properly initialized before an application can use them
(and properly shut down after an application finishes
with them), this layer "likes to be in control".

While there are applications within our project that
require all the speed and power that this "OS-ish"
layer provides, mine is not one of them.  I *am* built
on top of the layer (by choice), but use it almost
exclusively for its inter-process communication services
(I also use the interface to the GPS clock).

However, I would like to move to a Win32 platform to
take advantage of a RAD tool such as Visual Basic.
Based on responses to my post of two weeks ago, I can
call (from Visual Basic) Ada code that has been
compiled into a DLL.  But I'd like to remain built on
top of a reworked (for Win32) and recompiled (not
redesigned) version of the "OS-ish" layer.  The "keeper"
of that layer tells me that he could probably do the
port in approx 3 months.  He says that a redesign would
be possible, but less desirable, and (obviously) more
costly (and, therefore, much harder to sell to
management).

I guess my question boils down to this:

   Do I get to decide who's in control of my
   applications, or has Bill Gates decided that for me,
   too?  (why do I have a sneaking suspicion that I
   already know the answer?   ;)

Cheers,
Dave
------------
dksmith@n_o__S_P_A_M__traveller.com
(reply by removing "n_o__S_P_A_M__" from my address)
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