Multiple OS Windows for Squeak?

Peter William Lount peter at ActiveInfo.CA
Sat Apr 17 17:50:13 UTC 2004


Hi Tim,

> > > To do so would require some changes to the image format and VM...
> > > Currently Display is a special object that can be accessed by the
> > > platform dependant VM code which then creates a display based on a raw
> > > bitmap stored in the image. Many changes would be required to allow
one
> > > to instantiate Display as you suggest. =\
> > Are you saying that the current vm design of the smalltalk level code
and/or
> > the C level code can only open one os window?
> You certainly wouldn't need image _format_ changes for this. Image
> _code_ yes; quite a lot.

> The VM would need changes to stop keeping a
> single OS window as a special thing - in VW the window handles are kept
> in a broadly similar way to our file handles.

> Someone managed to do it for OS/2 several years ago - search for
> 'Cheese'.
Very cool.

>IIRC that went quite a lot further than simply having
> multiple windows to include using various OS widgets in a manner not
> unlike the old PPS 'Van Gogh' project.
I wasn't suggesting to go that far but it could.

> One could probably bind DisplayScreen objects to individual OS windows,
> change the vm to create them only when requested (RISC OS already does
> that for the current single Display) and mess around with the window
> updating to dig out the window identifier so as to get the right bits.
That's more along what I was suggesting.

> A Dire Warning - once you start on this path, be ready for demands for
> host OS widgets, fonts, menus, callbacks, transparent OS handles (and
> the problems of portability will make you tear your remaining hair out)
> followed by complaints that the host widgetry won't let you do a lot of
> useful stuff and why not emulate everything like java does, because if
> you want to suceed in the market you have to be _just like_
> java/c#/c++/vb/perl/whatever.
I just want mutliple os windows, everything else can stay the same as far as
I'm concerned. I'm working on a new "emulated" gui anyway so all it needs
are multiple os windows. Also some of my apps are better with multiple
windows, not to mention having seperate projects in seperate os windows as a
nice convienience.

All the best,

Peter





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