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What's where for using C++ with XPCE?
=====================================
Jan Wielemaker
Last updated: March 27, 1997 for XPCE 4.9.3
Aim
===
The C++ interface is intended to serve two purposes. One is to extend
the XPCE class hierarchy with classes that need to be fast and/or access
(OS) features not available from Prolog. The other was to allow for
stand-alone XPCE/C++ executables, in which Prolog was not involved.
Though still supported, we dropped the second (XPCE/C++ applications) as
an official goal for two reasons. First of all, there are already so
many C++ GUI tools that is appears pointless to add one more. This is
not really true if you need to write an incidental C++ GUI application
and XPCE/Prolog is your basic GUI tool, in which case you may wish to go
for it anyhow. Second, when we started the C++ interface, Prolog
environments were not as mature as they are now, and machines were
small. Neither is the case these days, which eliminates the need for C++
in most applications.
Status
======
This interface was originally written for XPCE 4.6.4 in 1993. It has not
been used much. One of the reasons was that g++ was not very stable, and
C++ objects were badly supported in Unix shared objects. With the
introduction of the ELF binary format, this has changed radically, and
C++ defined classes can now be easily compiled and loaded into a running
XPCE/Prolog system.
Maybe we can start serious evaluation now. Our questions to you are:
# Do *you* think it is useful? For doing what?
# Do you think this is the way XPCE should look from the
C++ world? If not, do you have ideas on improvements or
even a completely different approach?
# Are there holes (missing functionality) in the interface?
# Are there bugs in the interface?
# Anything you (dis)like?
The C++ interface is almost entirely in source-form (except for a couple
of hooks in the message-passing kernel).
Please send your comments to jan@swi.psy.uva.nl
XPCE/C++: For whom?
===================
Below are some cases where the C++ interface may be benificial to you:
# I like programming XPCE/Prolog/Lisp and my boss tells me to
program this application in C/C++.
You are lucky: you don't have to start learning a new interface
library!
# I like programming XPCE/Prolog/Lisp, but my application needs
this module to be really speedy.
Write the module in C(++) and pack it into an XPCE class. Now
you can use it from your favorite programming environment as if
it has always been part of XPCE.
# I want to write a multi-language application.
XPCE can communicate with Prolog, Lisp and C++; if necessary
with all three at the same time as long as Prolog and Lisp
don't dislike each other too much.
# I'm looking for a GUI library for C++.
All GUI libraries have strong and weak points, and so has XPCE.
Strong points are the high level of support given for
interactive graphics and the high-level runtime environment.
Versions and status
===================
XPCE version 4.6.4 is the first distributed version which supports an
interface to the C++ language. The interface has been tested on a
reasonable variety of (small) programs to ensure that the basic
functionality is stable enough for alpha testing on a wider community.
Versions tested:
SUN: OS: Sparc-solaris-2.5
CC/C++ gcc/g++ 2.7.2
PC: OS: linux-2.0.29
CC/C++ gcc/g++ 2.7.2
Documentation
=============
The interface is described (informally, with a lot of examples) in ``A
C++ interface for XPCE''. This document is in LaTeX form in
$PCEHOME/man/CXX/*. There is a PostScript version available using
anonymous ftp from swi.psy.uva.nl:/pub/xpce/doc/CXX/pce-CXX.ps.gz.
Where to start?
===============
With the demos in $PCEHOME/CXX/demo. The README file there tells how the
demos are compiled and run.
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