From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,33a6944ba1b879de X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-12-06 12:37:51 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamfinder.gnilink.net!nwrddc01.gnilink.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Frank J. Lhota" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <3DEF8BDB.7050009@acm.org> Subject: Re: Modern copy of GNAT for OpenVMS? X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Message-ID: Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 20:37:52 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.157.177.11 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrddc01.gnilink.net 1039207072 141.157.177.11 (Fri, 06 Dec 2002 15:37:52 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 15:37:52 EST Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:31510 Date: 2002-12-06T20:37:52+00:00 List-Id: "Marin David Condic" wrote in message news:asq6ar$2ul$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net... > Aside: Wouldn't it be nice to have a *standard* way of getting at various > "normal" OS services like networking and a GUI? Vast amounts of software > these days take advantage of that sort of thing, but then must become bound > to the OS that provides it. Portability starts becoming a pipe dream. You're absolutely right, especially about the lack of GUI standards. CLI applications, for all their limitations, were portable. You could write a "Hello, World!" application that compiles and runs on everything from a Cray to an Atari. But let's say you want to write the GUI equivalent of "Hello, World!". The X-Windows approach differs from the MS-Win approach which differs from the Mac approach. What ever happened to the notion of portability. Fortunately, we finally have a portability layer for GUI development, in the form of GTK API. I have become a fan of the GTK-Ada software. Eventually, I hope to port the GTK libraries to ObjectAda.