Rich wrote:
With the proper layer separating GUI from application code, there is no need to try and shoehorn every platform into a single GUI source base.
Exactly my point. If the GUI and underlying Fractal engine were separated, there could be a native Windows GUI. I meant no disrespect to you when I said *I* wasn't interested in programing a native Windows. I'm personally interested in WxWindows, but I didn't mean that you shouldn't have other interests. One of the source bases could be platform independent. Others could be platform specific. These are not mutually exclusive options. I don't think the demands Fractint places on the interface are too great. This might work in favor of writing native GUIs.
Each platform can have the GUI that works best for it -- on the Mac this means Toolbox, on Windows this means Win32 (and maybe even MFC), on X11 this means Motif, and on DOS it probably means Allegro with a 32-bit extender.
I'm not arguing with you here (though you might think I am.) WxWindows can be compiled to use Motif, GTK+, or Win32. My understanding that this works very well. However, the proof is in the pudding.
I know that if fractint gets ported to "WxWindows", the end result is that I'll probably never work on improving the Windows GUI or the X11 GUI in fractint. Learning WxWindows would be a dead-end for me; it has no market payoff and with my limited amount of time available for fractint coding, I would probably put the effort in elsewhere.
Rich, at present, neither you nor I are putting any time into fractint, so our votes don't count. :-) If fractint gets ported to WxWindows, that would not prevent you or Paul de Leeuw or anyone one else from making a Win32 GUI for fractint. There is no reason why there couldn't be more than one GUI front end, just as there's a X and a DOS front end now. I have my own personal reasons for what technology I am interested in for myself (and my interests can change). Learning a GUI platform not a career skill I will be using at work, so that limits me. I am still a software engineer, but doing scientific programming. The technology future versions of fractint use will depend in large part on skill, willingness to understand the program, and the willingness and ability to invest time. Tim