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From: Jon Jenkins <jenkinsj@ozy.dec.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Was: The Future of FreeBSD..Now: HTML GUI builder ??
Date: 27 Jul 1995 07:55:24 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corp
Lines: 91
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larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu (Larry Riedel) wrote:
>
>Jon Jenkins (jenkinsj@ozy.dec.com) wrote:
>> 3: There is nothing in the UNIX world that even comes
>> close to the likes of MC++, BC++ and Delphi is somethinig else.
>> This makes development easy, cheap and fast.
>
>I'm not sure what "comes close to the likes of" means, but for
>me, developing non-GUI C++ code with emacs and gcc on Unix is
>easier, faster, and cheaper than with MSVC++ on NT, although
>obviously pre-compiled headers and incremental linking would
>be welcome enhancements to gcc, but I think that Unix is still
>overall a much better development environment than NT ( even
>WITH the MKS toolkit :).
All I can say to that is that it is a very personal choice,
one which is definitely in the minority. Sureley you can't
compare the integrated project management, edit, compile,
debug, profile, context sensitive help environment, icon,
bitmap, menu and other resource builders, etc etc
of Borlands C++ to UNIX tools. Come on be serious,
there simply is no comparison in terms of
efficiency. Good grief dealing with emacs alone is like
wrestling with a dinosaur with a Lisp pteradactyl thrown
in for good measure of frustration and unnecessary crap.
I have said this before: if you want to see how GUIs
should be developed have a look at Delphi, it will
blow you away!!
>" Writing GUI code may be easier (for
>the money) on NT, but as a software engineer I do not find GUI
>building to be a very interesting challenge anyway - maybe one
>step above database programming. :)
You completely miss the point here. The aim is be able to
provide the tools to build GUI front ends quickly
and easily. The backend code can be as interesting
or as boring as you like from theoretical particle physics
to system administration. You cannot deny that GUI interfaces
are generally easier and more friendly to use
let alone conext sentive help, multimedia etc. Like
it or not this is the way computing is going or has
already gone!!
Look at the popularity of WWW explosion over the past
12 months. The Internet has been available for 10+ years
but limited mainly to academic circles. Put a GUI
in front of it, call it WWW and whammo all of a sudden
millions of previously unimpressed people want it.
IMHO FreeBSD should also have the GUI mentality as an
option. In order to do that GUI interface builders
are almost mandatory.
This brings up an interesting point for discussion:
Is it possible to use Web tools as a GUI builder i.e.
to have a cut down browser to interface between
the user and back end code. The server (which is really
on the local machine) is used to access an HTML
encoded front ends ?? In this way the publicly
available Web tools could be used to build
the front end to apps in a standardised way
?? How would the user selections and entries
and back end output get between the HTML engine and
the back end code ? interprocess comms,
network, shared mem, pipes ??? Pardon my ignorance
if this is a dumb suggestion but I know little
of the Web technology.
Jon
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Dr Jon Jenkins
Location: Digital Equipment Corp, NaC,
Burnett Place, Research Park,
Bond University, Gold Coast
QLD, AUSTRALIA 4229
Phone: 61-75-75-0151
Fax: 61-75-75-0100
Internet: jenkinsj@ozy.dec.com
Close Proximity: "HEY YOU !!!"
The opinions expressed above are entirely personal and do not
reflect the corporate policy of DEC or the opinions of DEC management.
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