ex11, esdl

[Vlad Dumitrescu]

Hi Eric,

I was once (seems so long ago) thinking about the same thing. My conclusion was
that at the current stage ex11 is, it wouldn't be very difficult. What needs to
be done is in fact implement a X server that uses SDL to talk to the system.
This means that if ex11 is going to evolve and use more advanced X features,
then the server's implementation will have to follow, which is no easy thing.

SDL has another issue, that restricts its use: one can't have more than one OS
window from the same instance. So there won't be a nice desktop integration...
(and no running wings at the same time either :-) Also esdl doesn't yet support
SDL_ttf, which would improve greatly the looks.

Aside, I think that for any new graphics system to succeed it needs firstly to
be able to run gs applications, i.e. one has to write a gs translation layer.
Otherwise I don't think people will start using it very quickly. After all,
probably over 95% of Erlang's use today doesn't need any graphics.

/Vlad

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Merritt" <cyberlync@REDACTED>
To: <erlang-questions@REDACTED>
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 6:46 PM
Subject: ex11, esdl


> Hello all,
>
>  I have  embarked  on a  project to  port the backend of ex11 to esdl
> instead of  x11.  I am of the opinion that this  would give  me a nice
> crossplatform gui package for  erlang. If  anyone   else is interested
> let  me know. If I get one or more people interested in helping, I
> will put the source out somewhere like sourceforge (at  least once I
> find out what  the license to  ex11 is ;)
>
> Thanks,
> Eric
>