[plt-scheme] A Couple of Questions on DrScheme/Mzscheme

At Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:09:58 -0500, Jefferson Provost wrote:
> I wonder how 
> hard it would be to update MrEd to use the latest wxWindows?

We need a FAQ for this one. The answer is "insanely difficult".

It's not just a matter of calling darwing routines that produce
prettier results. It's about analyzing and modifying all callback paths
and allocation paths so that they're GC-safe, thread-friendly, and
eventspace-friendly. It's about normalizing key-/mouse-event and
refresh paths, which are natively very different on different
platforms.

Renovating the OS X port this summer reminded me how little I want to
work on this problem. The OS X work is not done; there's tons to do to
make it look and feel right (i.e., like any other OS X application),
and there are huge space leaks.

Who has created a multi-platform GUI toolbox that works for arbitrary
programs (as opposed to one major client, such as Mozilla), with the
consistency that people expect for a high-level language? Java and
Squeak. How did they do it? By writing everything --- drawing each
individual pixel and handling every mouse click --- from scratch. Java
has an army of programmers, and they make it work ok. Sqeak works ok as
long as you never want to leave Squeakworld. Unfortunately, we don't
have an army of programmers, and we insist on fitting into the outside
world.

Ok, enough pessimism. I'm *very* happy to see others working on GTk
bindings. Count me out when it comes to programming, but I'm definitely
cheering for you!

At Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:19:31 -0400, "Neil W. Van Dyke" wrote:
> I actually took a peek at this, maybe 6 months ago.  MrEd 200 used an
> older version of wxWindows, I think with substantial modifications.

Right. Also, MzScheme is a "substantial" modification of libscheme. :)

Matthew