Re: [Caml-list] Yet Another Compilation Question: lablgtk for windows + cygwin-mingw

[fred@ontosys.com]

On Mon, Aug 05, 2002 at 04:40:38PM +0200, Xavier Leroy wrote:
> One last, general comment.  (Climbing on my soapbox.)  The GNU
> compilers, OCaml, GTK. lablgtk, etc, are all software projects that
> are developed primarily under Unix, and then ported to Windows.  While
> each of these ports are done carefully and with considerable ingenuity,
> Windows is not Unix and minor differences or inconsistencies remain in
> each port.  These minor issues are usually workable when you use only
> one port, but can become a real headache when you pile up port over
> port over port.  What I am coming at is that unless you like to suffer
> and are ready to solve these issues yourself, it doesn't make much
> sense to develop an OCaml+lablgtk+GTK program under Windows.  

I've been planning to build an interactive application with OCaml that
will be deployed primarily on Windows, so I'd like to understand your
warning better.

1. Is the risk just in developing (compiling, packaging) on Windows,
   or also in deploying to Windows?

2. What do you mean by "piling port after port"?  Do you mean
   reworking the application to track changes as the various tools
   (GNU+OCaml+labltk+GTK) evolve in successive releases?  Has this
   been a big problem in applications such as Unison?  (Or any
   other broadly deployed OCaml app?  I don't know of others.)

3. Is there some other GUI framework that you expect will entail less
   suffering than lablgtk+GTK?

4. As the porting problem applies to the GNU compilers and OCaml
   itself, are you warning us against developing OCaml applications
   for use on Windows?

-- 
Fred Yankowski      fred@ontosys.com           tel: +1.630.879.1312
OntoSys, Inc	    PGP keyID: 7B449345        fax: +1.630.879.1370
www.ontosys.com     38W242 Deerpath Rd, Batavia, IL 60510-9461, USA
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