[aplusdev] Win port revisited (Cross Platform GUI)

[Steven H. Rogers]

I've started playing with the A+ s features a bit and looked at some 
of the source.  The A+ screen management package looks pretty 
comprehensive.  It represents a lot of work and duplicating it in a
manner that provides the same functionality for non UNIX platforms
would be a non-trivial task, especially if compatibility with existing
programs written to the MSTK is desired.

Here are some possibilities for cross platform GUI for A+.
1. Re-implement MSTK on top of an existing cross platform GUI tool kit
like wxWindows, FLTK, or GTK+.  This looks like a lot of work.
2. Create a binding form A+ to TCL/TK along the lines of the JTcl 
package (http://www.jsoftware.com/) that Martin Neitzel has developed.
3. Create a binding to a server side web scripting language, e.g.
Java, PHP, Python (possibly using Zope).
4. Create a web browser based GUI a la Marcus Ragg's XML based XUL:K
(http://www.geocities.com/aarwe100/index.html).  This presently works
only on Mozilla and Netscape 6.
5. Create a JavaScript based GUI.  The problem here being maintaining
compatibility between MS browsers and the others, as MS has followed 
their tactic of embrace, extend, extinguish for web scripting.
6. Write and XML-RPC client and server for A+ and communicate with GUI
client written in Python, Java, VB, etc.

Any comments?

Regards,
Steve
-- 
Steven H. Rogers, shrogers at ionet.net  --  I know if I quit drinking 
and smoking and driving fast, I could add ten years to my life.  The 
problem is, I'd be adding them at the wrong end. - P.J. O'Rourke