[info-mcl] digitool (MCL) / clozure (OpenMCL)

[Pascal Costanza]

On 10 Oct 2007, at 21:02, Andrew Shalit wrote:

> The other alternative is to create a portable GUI toolkit along the
> lines of what MCL implemented for the Macintosh: this would have a
> simple set of classes and methods for doing the most common things:
> creating windows, creating common widgets, menus, etc.  This could be
> made relatively portable and interactive, and it would by definition
> be easier to learn (because it would be so small).  It could also use
> native look and feel.  But it wouldn't give you the full access to
> the riches of the Mac.
>
> We have our own opinions inside Clozure. Some people love the idea of
> being able to use Core Animation from inside our CL applications.
> Others just want to type (MAKE-INSTANCE 'WINDOW) and have it do the
> right thing.  We'd be very interested in hearing where on that
> spectrum MCL users come down.

A portable GUI library should probably better be a community effort  
which involves participants from three or more CL implementations.  
Such projects already exist, like McCLIM, LTk, etc.

An implementation that takes full advantage of Mac OS X is, however,  
lacking.

If I remember correctly, the LispWorks guys also showed interest in  
getting CAPI more conformant to Mac OS X. I just don't know what  
priority that has. Nevertheless, that would probably make more sense  
than to start a new portable library from scratch.

Just my 0.02€.


Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza, mailto:pc at p-cos.net, http://p-cos.net
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Programming Technology Lab
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussel, Belgium