> > 1. How are you sharing your GUI code between OSs? Are you
> > using an established cross platform library such as wxWindows or
> > is it something unique to AbiWord?
>
> AbiWord does not use wxWindows or anything like it. Rather, the XP
> architecture was designed specifically for this problem.
>
> Our approach is philosophically different from uniform platform
> abstraction libraries like wxWindows or AWT. Most XP toolkits attempt
> to create an abstraction layer which is wide enough to accomodate
> virtually all platform-specific functionality. In our approach, we've
> simply admitted that platform-specific code needs to exist, and we've
> adopted a system which helps us deal with it, rather than adopting a
> system which helps us try to avoid it. We still use abstraction to
> hide platform-specific code, but not pervasively so.
>
> > 2. I have basically the same question about how the installer was
> > created.
>
> The installer was hand-written in C. It should be considered a work
> in progress, and unless it gets completed, the project may eventually
> end up switching to a plain old InstallShield setup program. The
> intent of the current installer was to make it XP as well, porting it
> to GTK and BeOS later. We have not gotten that far yet. Even the
> Win32 version needs some work right now.
In my opinion, UNIX doesn't need an installer and it would be more likely
to lengthen the install process and confuse people. UNIX already has
standard mechanisms for dealing with packages (deb,rpm,slp) and it it what
people are most used to and best integrates with their existing
installation (dependencies...).
Maybe an Abi frontend to [rpm/deb/windows/whatever else] package
management including an installer would provide a GUI installer for
AbiWord, but that would be another project.
> > The reason I ask is that our company supports multiple platforms
> > and we want to learn how other people solve the inherent problems
> > involved.
>
> I'm planning to write a paper on XP development techniques, including
> an overview as well as a specific summary of the practices we've used
> for AbiWord. It will be a while before it's done, but I'll send a
> message to the list when it's ready. If my abstract gets accepted, it
> will get done sooner than later.
>
> --
> Eric W. Sink, Software Craftsman
> eric@abisource.com
>