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000173_icon-group-sender _Wed Apr 22 07:53:28 1998.msg
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Received: from kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU [192.12.69.239])
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for <icon-group-addresses@baskerville.CS.Arizona.EDU>; Wed, 22 Apr 1998 07:53:28 -0700 (MST)
Received: by kingfisher.CS.Arizona.EDU (5.65v4.0/1.1.8.2/08Nov94-0446PM)
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To: icon-group@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Date: 22 Apr 1998 02:03:02 GMT
From: jeffery@cs.utsa.edu (Clinton Jeffery)
Message-Id: <6hjj4m$inc@ringer.cs.utsa.edu>
Organization: The University of Texas at San Antonio
Sender: icon-group-request@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
References: <6gir3d$d0d@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>, <slrn6j2hok.6li.davecook@mozart.cts.com>, <6hhqi6$2p9@bgtnsc01.worldnet.att.net>
Reply-To: jeffery@cs.utsa.edu
Subject: Re: Is this language dead?
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@optima.CS.Arizona.EDU
Status: RO
Content-Length: 3032
: My main confusion at this point is what Win32 API I am able to use
Icon does not provide the Win32 API. It provides a portable API. Some
Windows specific facilities (common controls) are available, but generally
only those which could be implemented on other platforms. This is free
research software where portability is a major emphasis. It should not
be surprising that it has a different emphasis than commercial tools,
especially those aimed specifically at the Windows market.
: Registry access, and Common Controls. Will it require a knowledge of C/C++?
Since Win32 is a C API, you will probably need to know C in order to use it
from any language that provides access.
: I read a bit about the loadfunc() and callout()
loadfunc() is a UNIX-centric function; since Windows isn't very UNIX
compliant, it will require some effort on the part of a Windows developer
to implement this for Windows. I am always looking for volunteers...
callout() may be obsoleted by loadfunc(); I don't remember whether it is
supported under UNIX Icon any more, but it isn't under Windows.
: The majority of the documentation seems to be focused on Unix environments.
Yes, Icon is free research software that was developed in a UNIX environment
and has been widely ported. Windows Icon has a goal of running just as well
as UNIX Icon, and behaving as identically to it as possible.
: Im sort of shocked, but even
: alot of the IPL Libraries are unix based, which leaves me confused as to
: why they are included in the Win32 based version of Icon. Portability
: maybe, but even then, alot of them have prerequisits of 'unix'.
To taunt you. You should be running Linux, not a Microsoft OS.
More seriously, the IPL has many files that are specific to Windows or
specific to MS-DOS or some other platform. I don't see a problem with that.
I'm sort of shocked by your shock. :-) Some of the UNIX-specific modules
might be made to run under Windows; others certainly never will.
: I'd love to keep working in ICON, but I just dont want to be limited in
: what win32 abilities I can make use of.
Sorry, you should use C if you need the full Win32 API. It is gigantic,
ugly, and something we wouldn't want in the language. A Windows loadfunc()
may get implemented and do what you want someday; I just need a DLL guru
to come in and do it for us.
: Anyone who can offer me windows specific
: pointers please do contact me at the address above.
http://segfault.cs.utsa.edu/icon/inlwin.html is an Icon Newsletter article
that describes the Windows common controls that are used, as you observe, in
the Wi program.
I'm sorry that Icon's Windows-native facilities are so spartan when compared
with the lower-level languages that have a Microsoft-centric world view.
Other native Windows facilities may be added to Icon in the future, when
volunteers implement them.
--
Clint Jeffery, jeffery@cs.utsa.edu
Division of Computer Science, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Research http://www.cs.utsa.edu/research/plss.html