Re: a c++11 wrapper for gnustep libraries

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi Usama and all,
any thoughts on my suggestions?

BR,
Nikolaus

> Am 11.05.2021 um 14:24 schrieb H. Nikolaus Schaller <hns@computer.org>:
> 
> 
>> Am 11.05.2021 um 13:48 schrieb Usama makhzoum <osmakh1@gmail.com>:
>> 
>> 
>> On 5/10/21 11:20 PM, H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>>> Am 10.05.2021 um 20:58 schrieb أسامة مخزوم <osmakh1@gmail.com>:
>>>> 
>>>> hi all
>>>> 
>>>> I am thinking of a C++11 wrapper for base, gui and other libraries, may be 
>>>> it is easier to do than another PL (because of objective-c++ existence). 
>>>> however, i want to hear from you: I would like to have opinions and 
>>>> whether if there was a attemp to do this (with c++98, for example).
>>>> 
>>>> This also can give gnustep (another step). macosX developers always 
>>>> searches for c++ wrappers around cocoa and friends. before they enforced 
>>>> deeply to objc and swift, they simply wishing the last wish "I hope that 
>>>> someone did it". so maybe a c++ wrapper can make gnutep famous for the mac 
>>>> development, rather.
>>> On macOS C++ is not the primary language (except for kernel drivers). It is 
>>> ObjC and Swift.
>>> 
>>> IMHO, objc++ exists because there are some interesting C++ based libraries 
>>> (e.g. data processing, business logic, file format decoders) where it 
>>> should be possible to integrate them into objc based GUI apps. So in MVC 
>>> architecture, C++ would be mainly used for providing an existing data model.
>> 
>> this could be also a reason for writing such a wrapper.
> 
> I do not understand how it would help. If the GUI is to be written in ObjC 
> and some C++ libs to be included, wrapping ObjC transforms the whole project 
> into a C++ project which is not what I would like to have.
> 
>> why doing things in two language becomes the standard way? think of it as 
>> you were using python and have to do GUI staff with Qt, does i have to try 
>> py-c++ or to use a wrapper like pyqt?
> 
> Well, if I use ObjC and want to do some macOS or Linux or Windows GUI stuff. 
> Then I simply use GNUstep withou any wrappers.
> 
>> 
>> 
>> GNUSTEP framework is a very easy-and-popular framework, i like it both with 
>> developing, and in use. and I think it will make another little advance if 
>> there was some easy/neat way to use from c++ (and many other programming 
>> languages, like perl, and even javascript), i assume some progress when a 
>> c++ programmer (thinks in terms of templates, mutli-inheritance and 
>> smartpointers) has access to GNUSTEP. I know that i didn't invent something 
>> new or make things impossible as possible. I want to help people that like 
>> c++-syntax to consider gnustep as an option, after all.
> 
> Ok!
> 
> Now, I could imagine something like a https://www.wxwidgets.org glue so that 
> you can compile any wxWidgets based application not only for macOS, Linux 
> (GTK, Qt, X11 etc.) or Windows but also for GNUstep. So make GNUstep another 
> "backend" option for wxWidgets in the list of supported platforms:
> 
>       https://www.wxwidgets.org/about/   (i.e. create some wxGNUstep)
> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> I wonder what a use case of the reverse wrapping would be.
>> 
>> a syntax-sugar, or convince wrapper is the main goal.  maybe used as 
>> additional gui-frontend for a c++  graphical or command line application 
>> without too much diving into obj-c++.
> 
> There may be a key decision before starting a project like you are thinking 
> of: which classes and interfaces should your wrapper provide? Something 
> completely new (optimized for wrapping GNUstep) or a well known set of 
> interfaces already used by many C++ projects.
> 
> Beware: there are already many:
> 
>       
> https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/babfl5/a_pretty_big_list_of_c_gui_libraries/
> 
> So wxWidget seems to me one of the preferred choices - but I am not that 
> active in C++ that I know what others are doing.
> 
> What I therefor suggest is to check if it is sufficient to make a special 
> compiler setup to compile wxOSX/Cocoaas as C++ wrapper around GNUstep. So it 
> may even almost exist but nobody did have the idea to make use of it. And it 
> may be a much more manageable task than inventing a new wrapper and make 
> people use it.
> 
> Now I see a nice benefit of such a project: get any source package from 
> github (e.g. KiCAD) that uses wxWidgets, compile it with wxGNUstep and get a 
> harmonized look and feel inside a GNUstep desktop...
> 
>