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From: kpc@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (k p c)
Subject: A really portable UI for Lisp?
In-Reply-To: berlage@gmd.de's message of 1 Mar 1995 10:22:50 GMT
Message-ID: <1995Mar8.100110.24336@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov>
To: berlage@gmd.de (Thomas Berlage),kpc
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Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 09:59:18 GMT

Quoth berlage@gmd.de (Thomas Berlage) quoting me:
> > It would be very nice if there were a widely used, easy to use, widely
> > portable user interface system for CL.  But I don't know of one,

> GINA seems to have gained a little bit of that status. At least it

I like Gina's simplicity and composability (CLOS, row-column, form)
and would be happy if something like it were really widely portable.
What I mean by "widely portable" is actually much very demanding:

	o All versions of Unix by typing "./configure;make" or
	  something similar (this one really appeals to me, since I
	  have spent weeks on trying to get CLM to work on Solaris
	  with either of two versions of Motif and either of two
	  versions of X).  It would just ask where the libraries are
	  and do everything else automatically.
	o All common versions of CL
	o DOS, Windows, Macintosh, Windows NT.  This would be done
	  either by providing a common interface or by using local
	  libraries as a back end.  In either case it would minimize
	  API changes from system to system as much as possible.
	o Maybe other toolkits as a back end, possibly including TK

This might be too much to ask of the 1990's and maybe it's a new
millenium kind of thing to want, but we can dream out loud on the net.
:-) My dream is not to have to deal with different ways of doing
things on different systems, and especially to install easily.  I
think what I'm angling for is to be able to know that on any given
platform, a full-featured CL application will be able to run.  I know
that it is a lot of work, and that it will take time to develop, and
that there are some portability differences that must be encountered.

Back in the 1990's, I'm still having trouble installing (or porting)
Gina/CLM on Solaris.  I look forward to trying your patch once I get
it to apply (my version of patch, at least, appears not to be entirely
pleased with it).  Thank you VERY much for making it available.  It
will be a huge relief to me once Gina runs on Solaris.  I will then
know that I will not have to rewrite my UI for another package or use
SunOS 4.1.3 again.
