New Externals...

Thu Feb 3 15:21:28 EST 2005

Hi,
Windows Mobile platforms have had .Net capability for a while via the .Net
Compact Framework and controls support from vendors such as ComponentOne.
Visual Studio IDE (Professional and above) provides projects 'out of box'
for Mobile devices and even an emulator to test your application without
having a PDA/Smart Device.

Current .Net framework (1.1) Will work on Windows Platforms all the Way back
to NT4 SP6a with certain caveats. 

Mono on Linux works quite nicely and I regularly build on MS .Net and run on
windows and Vice Versa. Only real weakness at moment is the Windows Forms
Implementation on Mono is a 'work in progress' and relies on Wine emulation.
Iam using GTK bindings on .Net to address this for now.
A lot of these limitations are been addressed in future versions as well as
VS2005 compatibility and now Novell is stewarding the effort its moving
along at quite a rate. There will always be some minor differences ( IP
issues and certain frameworks not been useful on non Windows environments).

Like most things in theory ( I think :-)) )Revolution could be made so that
it emits Mono/MS .Net compatible ILASM code which could be run on top of a
.Net or Mono runtime enivronment. Points to note here are :-

Would need a ground up rewrite of Revolution to generate ILASM instead of 
Its own integrated custom bytecode engine and code model. A BIG Job I 
would expect !

Revolution as it is has the nice feature of very easy deployment with 
most applications been comprised of a single file approx 2MB in size. 
Mono and .Net are in the 20 to 40 MB range unless frameworks etc are
already installed on system its to be deployed on ( Very uncommon  
currently ).  Solution to reduce .Net size and not require framework to 
be installed globally do exist and cost is $$$$ ( Xenocode $1500 !! ). 
This issue often occurs with Java too :-)

I would personally think a better course to take would be the one Gordon
suggested in his OT, namely make it easy to bind to .Net/Mono in a similar 
Way to how you can use .Net functionality from ActiveState Perl using
PerlNet supplied with their Perl Development Kit.

Phew that got a bit too long and OT :-)) 

Cheers
Derek

-----Original Message-----
From: use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com
[mailto:use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com] On Behalf Of Frank D.
Engel, Jr.
Sent: 03 February 2005 19:24
To: How to use Revolution
Subject: Re: New Externals...

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Hash: SHA1

"Going to be" cross-platform?  Check here:

http://www.mono-project.com/

Hmm... what about a Rev runtime for .net?  I think .net will be 
available for Windows Mobile soon (is it already?), so a .net runtime 
version would automatically provide support for software on Windows 
Mobile, Windows itself (2000+, correct?), and apparently Mono-supported 
platforms as well (various flavors of Linux, plus OS X more or less -- 
more soon, I hope) -- and possibly even future platforms which don't 
even exist yet!

On Feb 3, 2005, at 2:01 PM, Gordon Webster wrote:

> Dear Chipp
>
> An "externals external" would be great. Something that
> could expose the functions and type requirements in
> standard windows dlls or *nix .so shared library (and
> their OSX equivalents).
>
> As is already the case in C#, Java or some of the
> flavors of Basic, you could then import these
> functions directly into transcript something like ...
>
>     externalHandle = altuitUseExternal("mylib.dll")
>
> IMHO runrev really needs a more accessible interface
> to the vast wealth of shared libraries that exist out
> there, without having to write wrappers for every new
> library you want to use. I would love to be able to
> use OpenGL from within rev for example and create
> interactive 3D viewports on my rev stacks.
>
> OT: Wouldn't it be great to have .NET bindings for
> rev, especially since it seems that .NET is going to
> be a genuinely cross-platform runtime (please no Java
> Vs. .NET flames or any other anti-MS invective - I'm
> no great fan of MS, but it seems that they've finally
> done something right with .NET)
>
> Best
>
> Gordon
>
>
>
>
> --- Chipp Walters <chipp at chipp.com> wrote:
>
>> The recent altBrowser bundle offering was a success
>> thanks to RR users
>> all over the world. A personal thank-you from Chris
>> and I for all of
>> your support. And thanks to RunRev for an excellent
>> job of helping to
>> get the word out.
>>
>> We're currently working on a free upgrade for
>> altBrowser (both Mac and
>> PC) which we hope will be out next week.
>>
>> So, this got Chris and I thinking about other
>> externals. Before we
>> started, we wanted to get some feedback from RR
>> users as which externals
>> you would like to see. Keep in mind, they need to be
>> cross-platform, and
>> they need to have some sort of mass market appeal.
>>
>> Here are a couple of ideas we have:
>>
>> 1) USB external support. That about says it all
>> right there!
>>
>> 2) Image Effects library. The ability to
>> import/export many different
>> formats, apply special effects like dropped shadows,
>> borders, sharpen
>> and blur and more.
>>
>> If you have any other ideas, please let us know,
>> either on this list or off.
>>
>> Thanks again!
>>
>> -Chipp Walters
>> Altuit, Inc.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> No virus found in this outgoing message.
>> Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
>> Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.4 - Release
>> Date: 2/1/2005
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> use-revolution mailing list
>> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
>>
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>>
>
>
> =====
> :::::::::: Gordon Webster ::::::::::
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>
- -----------------------------------------------------------
Frank D. Engel, Jr.  <fde101 at fjrhome.net>

$ ln -s /usr/share/kjvbible /usr/manual
$ true | cat /usr/manual | grep "John 3:16"
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.
$
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