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Re: Mac OS X presents an opportunity for Dylan



(Sorry for spamming the list today...).

On Thursday, November 30, 2000, at 07:25 PM, Raffael Cavallaro wrote:

> I guess I was referring to Dylan bindings/interfaces for the Cocoa/Next 
> frameworks with which IB dovetails nicely. I was just thinking that Dylan 
> *with* Cocoa could steal the show. As it stands now, you really need to be 
> using Objective-C or Java if you want true Cocoa integration. If Dylan could 
> get in there, it could prove decisive. After all, for many, if not most, 
> going to Cocoa will mean using a new language in any event (either Java, or 
> Objective-C) so this could be a strategic opportunity to get people to 
> switch to Dylan if handled properly. 

It's possible. The big problem, as usual, is parsing the headers and generating the Dylan interfaces. Once that's done,  we can assemble Objective-C call-outs using the melange-support or c-ffi interfaces in Gwydion Dylan.
IB integration is still another project, though.

> BTW, I was not in any way critcizing Gabor's hard work or responsiveness. 
> Far from it - I've submitted problems to him, and had responses *within the 
> hour*, sometimes several in one day. I think the problems lie with 
> Codewarrior which is just plain buggy under MacOS X PB. As I said, things 
> work just fine under MacOS 9.04, the CW Dylan plug-in included. 

OK, that's cool, I'm sorry I misunderstood your original comment.

> I just think that the handwriting is on the wall - free tools will be most 
> useful under a free IDE, and Project Builder is almost certain to be Apple's 
> free IDE for MacOS X (much as MPW is now for Classic). I can't imagine that 
> they would revoke it's free status - that would be tantamount to suicide. 

Hands up who'd be surprised if Apple managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory again...

> Apple needs as many new developers as possible interested in MacOS X, and 
> Cocoa in particular. PB and IB will continue to be free. If Cocoa were 
> seamlessly integrated with Dylan, Dylan could gain huge mind/marketshare on 
> the Mac platform, simply because most developers (who will be coming from 
> C/C++) will have to switch languages in any case. 

So how do we parse those headers? :-)

- Rob.


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