Re: Air traffic control system in Java

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Mar 4, 10:15 pm, "Vinzent Hoefler"
<0439279208b62c95f1880bf0f8776...@t-domaingrabbing.de> wrote:
> Randy Brukardt wrote:
> > And the work to define a standard GUI to the level required for the Ada
> > standard would be immense, especially in order to prevent tying it to any
> > underlying target. (We'd want it to work on both Windows and Linux for
> > instance, without requiring either of them.) And I don't see anyone really
> > stepping up to do that work.
>
> The only languages I know with a built-in GUI (Oberon and Smalltalk) can be
> called "failed" in that respect (there are probably more, but I can't know
> them all).

Interesting you should mention Oberon; I just installed it into a VM
to play with.
{VirtualPC is free now, so if you're using Windows there is little
disincentive
to throwing odd/interesting OSes into a VM.}

> Considering what I regularly read in the appropriate newsgroups, even a big
> library like the VCL of Delphi is not nearly enough to satisfy its users,
> there are a lot of add-ons, third party tools and hacks to get what they
> want (and Delphi is even just Windows-only, so we're not even talking problems
> of cross-platform GUI).

Delphi's VCL is actually one of the best GUI-builders I've seen...
there was
also the Kylix port of the VCL to the Linux environs which fizzled
out, but
iy *WAS* there.

Given that the VCL is basically an object-oriented wrapper of the
Windows
[graphics] API it seems to me that Ada *could* be used similarly and
in an
even better manner: an object-oriented hierarchy-among-specifications
which
have their bodies chosen as per the platform being developed.

> So if someone expects such a beast can be standardized at all, I'd call him
> overly optimistic at least.

OpenGL and PotScript/PDF are standard and [true] cross-platform, no?
Couldn't a standard GUI therefore be built upon them?
{Granted some people won't like the idea of using/requiring OpenGL/
Postscript
as a base for it.}