Re: Winelib's role in converting Windows applications

[Boaz Harrosh]

I totally disagree. It is like saying Lets not port. And keep paying the 
Microsoft tax. Which keeps Microsoft big and Linux small forever.
And is only good for PC. What about IBM machines, PDA(s), Suns, Macs... 
An x86 only Linux is not Principal-Linux.

The path is:
- Move to a different compiler on windows. Alternatives:
     comu-c                     - (2 WML (Weeks for 1 million Lines) )
    C++ builder Borland. -  (Lots of COM ATL and MFC see MinGW. Lots of 
Win32API STL and C++ - 4 WML )
    gcc (MinGW)            - (Very very soon - 6 WML )
    Intel c++                    - ( Don't know )

- Than Winelib on Linux. If you are using Technologies unavailable in 
Wine/Linux, (for example speech to text). Implement it and send patches 
to wine.
- Maintain the projects on all platforms (Including windows) with the 
same compiler and Makefiles.
- Slowly step-by-step Port MFC code to wxWidgets, STL to STLPort, ATL to 
Atilla, msvcrt to glibc ,Win32 to POSIX. And use POSIX portability tools 
on Windows.
- Stop the MS tax, grow up, get Independent.

You see Wine is like High-school where you get to Revolt against your 
parents. And it is like collage Where you get a real education. Than you 
have a real Job and you get to Fly rockets to the moon. But your parents 
can't come.

Free Life
Boaz

Ira Krakow wrote:
> As many of you know, Brian and I are writing a book on
> Wine and Winelib for Prentice Hall.  Brian's doing the
> Wine part; I'm doing the Winelib part.
>
> At Wineconf, I had a number of conversations about
> Winelib's role in converting Windows apps.  The
> consensus seems to be that the most efficient
> conversion path is for much of the Windows app to stay
> in Visual C++ (or whatever) and that only the modules
> that specifically require native Linux calls should be
> recompiled, via MinGW/Dev-C++ on the Windows side, and
> Winemaker on the Linux side, into Winelib objects.
>
> For example, if the application requires PAM
> authentication, or a Linux-based help system, these
> modules would be separated out and encapsulated as
> Winelib objects.  I was thinking of using PAM
> authentication as a good example, since it works for
> any authentication scheme that the application
> requires.
>
> This is the approach I plan to take.  I welcome all
> feedback.
>
> Thanks.
> Ira