[LispM-Hackers] YA graphics library, but this might be the one...

[James A. Crippen]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, John Morrison wrote:

> Hi;
> 
> We looked at using SDL here at the Day Job for writing cross-platform
> soldier training "games," but apparently the support under Windows was
> spotty (we actually built it and tested it) -- the real priority for the
> Linux types was Linux, and Windows was an afterthought -- some stuff
> just didn't work at all.  All the "real" Windows game applications used
> DirectX (even, to my consternation, some of ours) and not SDL.  So, we
> blew it off (however the Day Job requirements do NOT match what we need
> here, and are arguably a lot more intense -- video codecs, etc.).

It sounds like SDL 1.2 a/o 1.3 have pretty good Windows support.  Maybe
you worked with an older version.  I know that Windows is their second
most important port after Linux.

> For less "game-like" applications, we used to use WxWindows
> (www.wxwindows.org) which was pretty good.  Unbeatable license.  Lowest
> Common Denominator functionality.  However, since it simply wraps win32
> and one of GTK/Motif/xt, it should have substantial font support (in a
> reasonably portable way).

Yeah, but will I have to have different fonts for different systems.  I'd
almost rather render the fonts myself if this is the case.

> However, as of today (speak of the devil), we are switching EVERYTHING
> to Qt, which is a much more ambitious toolkit than WxWindows, and which
> has licensing issues (although they're probably not killer here).

I don't think we need to worry about Qt licensing, at least on Unix.  The
Windows version is IIRC not Free.

> I have to think that the font library support will be the killer thing
> here.  Might be worth figuring out what API you need to support the ops
> and prototype it in a couple of these...

That's pretty much what I was thinking of first.  I need to learn what the
heck a 'sheet' is.

> Let us know what seems like the Right Thing.

I'm going to put together a UI lib that can change backend display systems
as necessary.  The first step, because it looks like not much work, I
think will be SDL.  The next one should be X.  Then maybe wxWindows or Qt.  
Then whatever.

'james

-- 
James A. Crippen <james@unlambda.com> ,-./-.  Anchorage, Alaska,
Lambda Unlimited: Recursion 'R' Us   |  |/  | USA, 61.2069 N, 149.766 W,
Y = \f.(\x.f(xx)) (\x.f(xx))         |  |\  | Earth, Sol System,
Y(F) = F(Y(F))                        \_,-_/  Milky Way.