[KLUG Members] Desktop Linux -- A VB & Access developer's view

[Michael Lueck]

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 15:31:13 -0400, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:

>console = ncurses (full screen text)

Ah, life on OS/3 is much as it was on OS/2. In OS/2 there was a clear
distinction between text mode apps which were and were NOT windowable... I.E.
could they run in a command prompt window in Presentation Manager, or would
starting the app in such a window switch you into full screen text mode.

I don't think such text mode detail is on NT, but maybe it is and just never
used since NT was created in the world of VGA and not an IBM 5170.

Anyway, with GUI apps and needing to be cross platform, another design idea
would be to separate business logic into libraries and develop the GUI to call
those libraries. Libraries could be cross platform, then develop the GUI in a
tool for each platform... maybe MS C++ on Win and GCC with GDK+ on Linux. My
guess is that cross platform GUI libraries lag behind other things when it
comes to cross platform being the top requirement. They might be cross
platform, but you end up with a limited set of widgits, low performance, etc...

Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/