From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Efforts to attract more users? Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:37:13 +0300 Message-ID: <83iq4ltal2.fsf@gnu.org> References: <87630m1vnz.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <87r5jaywvt.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <87lj9iyv98.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <83bpaeumdx.fsf@gnu.org> <20100711150142.GB3134@muc.de> <834og6uduu.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1278920389 26736 80.91.229.12 (12 Jul 2010 07:39:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:39:49 +0000 (UTC) Cc: fplemma@gmail.com, rms@gnu.org, lennart.borgman@gmail.com, joakim@verona.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org, acm@muc.de, miles@gnu.org To: John Yates Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jul 12 09:39:45 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OYDc9-0001in-Ck for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:39:45 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:41325 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OYDc8-0004m0-NA for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:39:44 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=35271 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OYDc2-0004la-Ef for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:39:39 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OYDby-0007q1-QP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:39:36 -0400 Original-Received: from mtaout20.012.net.il ([80.179.55.166]:45799) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OYDby-0007pq-IA; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:39:34 -0400 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.a-mtaout20.012.net.il by a-mtaout20.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) id <0L5F00K00NGC5800@a-mtaout20.012.net.il>; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:39:16 +0300 (IDT) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([77.127.120.144]) by a-mtaout20.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) with ESMTPA id <0L5F00GEBP9D5WF0@a-mtaout20.012.net.il>; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:39:15 +0300 (IDT) In-reply-to: X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 10 (beta) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:127085 Archived-At: > Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:25:05 -0400 > From: John Yates > Cc: Alan Mackenzie , fplemma@gmail.com, rms@gnu.org, lennart.borgman@gmail.com, > joakim@verona.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org, miles@gnu.org > > On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > > > >> From: Alan Mackenzie > >> > >> In that case, couldn't we just convert our base code to C++, then we > >> could use wxWidgets. > > > > Maybe Lennart will volunteer for that job. > > Bjarne Stroustrup pretty much beat Lennart to it. It is mostly a > project decision to invoke the C++ rather than the C compiler. Compiling ANSI C sources with a C++ compiler is a relatively trivial job. Most of the work is elsewhere: you need to actually use C++ features in order to compile and link against wxWidgets, see their documentation for details. And that would involve solving all kinds of potential incompatibilities, like the complex games we play with memory allocation, including, but not limited to, relocating buffers and strings behind the app's back, allocating off the pure space, etc. I don't think a C++ Emacs will fly without a private implementation of `new' and friends, for example. And then we will need to figure out the possible incompatibilities with other toolkits, whose sources we don't own and don't control. So please don't try to pretend this as an easy decision and easy job. It's not. It's not impossible, of course; it just takes motivated individuals and enough time. If you are stepping forward, by all means, describe your plan and let's discuss it. > The gcc project recently took the plunge: I wish Emacs was as simple a project as GCC and had so many developers per area of expertise.