[Sussex] Wanted: Good GPL development tool for Cross Platform Environments.

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Nik

On Sat, Jun 07, 2003 at 03:18:49PM +0100, John Crowhurst wrote:
> 
> > Actually I have in mind, JavaSwing for this but I wondered if others had
> > any experience on what does and does not work.

Java (Swing) is not GPLed.  But it does allow for GPL code to be developed
using it.

> > What I want to do ...
> > Write a small App to run in windows for connecting to remote databases
> > and extracting a small amount of information.
> 
> You could use cygwin (www.cygwin.com), which is free. Then you can program
> the app in anything, even shell and perl.
> 
> In fact, cygwin provides the gcc range of compilers, so you can output
> runtime from Ada, C, C++ etc.
> 
> The only problem is that it can't create a GUI except on X.

I've got cygwin installed on my work Win2K laptop, and I must say it works
just fine for scripting.  I can't report what it's like for C, C++, ...
development as I haven't used it in that mode.

I've been told by a friend that WXWindows (www.wxwindows.org) has a cross
platform GUI tool set that is LGPLed.  There is also QT for a cross platform
GUI.  Goolge and you'll find more.  Therefore you may not need to run an
X server.

> > What it should do ....
> > Allow me to redistribute the Runtime and Source of the code without
> > license restrictions
> 
> As above, all you need to supply is the binary dll files that cygwin needs
> to work along with your runtime and sources.

Agreed

> > What it should allow me to do...
> > Simply compile against platform without expensive development
> > environments and licenses.
> 
> As above.

Agreed

> > Now Im thinking that C and Java should fit the bill, anyone else ?

As you are thinking about a GUI and database access then Java does fit
this bill.  I've been playing around with Swing and I must say that it
is a very nice GUI development environment - easy to extend if you need
something special.

But as you want to install in on a Windows systems this also suggests 
that part of your target uses expect a Windows like application.  Swing
does have the advantage of having a changable Look & Feel, so for the
Window's users it will look like any other Window's app, for Mac users
Apple have released an Acqua L&F, and for Unix users there is the Metal 
or Motif L&F.  There are also some compersional L&Fs available too.