Message-ID:	<328503FE.3E59@ananke.amu.edu.pl>
Date:	Sat, 09 Nov 1996 23:21:50 +0100
From:	Mark Habersack <grendel AT ananke DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl>
Reply-To:	grendel AT ananke DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl
Organization:	Home, sweet home
MIME-Version:	1.0
To:	Dave Pearson <davep AT hagbard DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
CC:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Adding Windows Support?
References:	<Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 961107133021 DOT 3296F-100000 AT is> <slrn588g3c DOT t8p DOT davep AT hagbard DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>

Dave Pearson wrote:

> > I might have been talking out of ignorance, but what bothers me is
> > exactly how ``simple'' a program must be before it can be compiled
> > with RSXNTDJ without additional packages such as MFC.
> 
> Good point, I wonder how complex an app can be done as well, however,
> I'd not consider MFC to be part of an "SDK", it might be nice to have
> for some, but you can also do most(all?) work with the direct API.
True, MFC is not a part of SDK. It's also true that you DONT NEED MFC,
or any C++ library for that matter, to develop a fully-blown app for
WinXX. After all Windows IS NOT an object oriented system (altho thre
were plans to create such a systems), its APIs are normal C/PASCAL
functions and there's othing special about them. Windows is just a small
(well, in M$ terms at least ;-)) kernel wrapped up with a HUGE library
of functions.
And I'd rather suggest that one should avoid writing applications using
MFC. I mean, look at the WordPad application. It's written with MFC and
is painfully slow even on Pentium 133! The situation is better with OWL
although it's also much slower than "pure" C applications.

> > Can you write a full-blown Win32 program with a decent GUI (dialog
> > boxes, scroll bars, fonts, etc.) with only DJGPP and RSXNTDJ?
> 
> This is guessing (from writing API Win311 apps), but I can't see any
> reason why not. Once that that *is* missing is a resource editor, but
> you can still write the resource files by hand (groan).
Hey, we still have a pencil and a sheet of parper, haven't we? ;-))

> > If you can, then why did Cygnus develop a whole new project instead
> > of just using DJGPP and RSXNT?
> 
> A question for Cygnus I think. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but
> all the Cygnus software is Win32 software, unlike DJGPP.
You might ask: why DJ has ported gcc to DOS? He might have used a cross
compiler from unix, right? I think that the answer is the same in both
cases: it's good to have a native compiler in an environment you work
in.

-- 
**************************************************************************
You tell me I'm drunk then you sit back and smug a while convinced that
you're right, that you're still in command of your senses. I laugh at
your superior attitude, your insincere platitudes will make me throw up.
The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy if I'm left to decide the
company I choose.
********************** http://ananke.amu.edu.pl/~grendel
*****************

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