On 1/23/17, John Spikowski <supp...@scriptbasic.org> wrote: > Eric, > > I'm a confused. >
I’m merely fulfilling IUP’s own self-proclaimed mandate. I’m not doing anything particularly special here. I'm just implementing a new backend for IUP, just like all the other backends. From the first paragraph on the main IUP website: (1) “IUP is a multi-platform toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.” (2) “IUP's purpose is to allow a program source code to be compiled in different systems without any modification.” (3) “it uses native interface elements.” So to wrap your head around this, basically: - IUP currently has native backends for Windows, GTK, and Motif which allows for native GUI apps on those platforms. - I introduced IupCocoa, which is a backend written using Obj-C/AppKit so we can take cross-platform IUP apps to Mac and get the native GUI experience on Mac. - I introduced IupCocoaTouch, another backend written in Obj-C/UIKit so we can take our IUP apps to make native iOS apps. - I introduced IupAndroid, another backend written using the Android SDK with Java/JNI, so we can take our IUP apps to make native Android apps. - So finally, imagine the web browser itself as a platform (a peer to Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, GTK, Motif). (Since the web browser duplicates so much functionality of what we normally find in operating systems, some people have referred to the web browser as an “operating system”. This might help your mental model, e.g. Windows, Mac, Linux, Web Browser.) So this is just another backend for IUP so now we can take our IUP apps and make “native” web browser apps. There is nothing magical about this concept. A web browser backend for IUP is not fundamentally different than any of the other backends (e.g. GTK). It is only implementation detail on how to get there. Based on your confusion, I’m guessing you haven’t watched or haven’t fully grokked “The Birth & Death of JavaScript” talk I recommended. I recommend you watch that (again). Take notice of the Unreal Engine example. What we normally would compile and ship as a native app for Windows/Mac, they now recompile their exact same code base, targeting the Web Browser as the platform instead. So instead of making users download/install a native Windows/Mac app, users can run the exact same program through the web browser instead. https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death-of-javascript) Once all these backends are in place, IUP users can offer their users multiple options for their programs, e.g.: - Windows version - Mac version - Linux x64 version - iOS version - Android version - Web browser version So, say the user is running on a Raspberry Pi. Oops. They don't get a native version. But they can fallback to the web browser version. Also, not everybody likes to download/install apps, especially if they only want to try your app out or expect they just need a one-off. Having a web browser option can be nice for people like this. -Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Iup-users mailing list Iup-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/iup-users
