Re: Tcl/Tk Interface Unification

[Hans Ronne <hronne at telia dot com>]

>> tcltk/sdl interfaces. What remains to do is to untangle it further by
>> giving each of the latter its own main function file which lives in the
>> tcltk or sdl directory, respectively, instead of in the x11 directory.
>
>This I have now done for both the Tcl/Tk and SDL interfaces.
>However, I still need to go into the files and clean out all of
>the residual stuff.
>
>> Once this has been done, the old x11/xconq.c can be retired.

Great job! I think this will save us some gray hairs in the future.

>Now we just have makefile hacks to determine which interface to
>build when someone does "make all-xconq". And more makefile hacks
>to determine which compile and link flags to use depending on the
>build platform....
>
>Some of these things can be simplified by making the configure
>script do more host-dependent configuration of certain make
>variables. Another thing that I think would help would be to add
>a new config flag, "enable-ui". This would take one of the
>following arguments: tcltk, sdl, xtxaw, curses. And "tcltk" would
>be the default setting, at least while the SDL interface is so
>primitve. This would also deprecate the usage of "enable-sdl".

Right. But wouldn't it be simpler to just scrap enable-sdl and enable
building by default of all interfaces that are supported in terms of
installed libraries? This is after all how cconq already works. As long as
all apps have different names, there should be no problems.

If it is easy to build all apps (meaning that no extra configurations are
needed), more users will do that, which will provide us with more user
feedback. Otherwise, the only people who are ever going to build the
non-tcltk apps are those who are hacking them.

>Basically, I think there is a lot of polish that needs to be
>applied to the configury and build system.

Yes. Another inconsistency right now is where the apps are built. Cconq is
built in the curses directory, which makes sense, but xconq and sdlconq are
built in the x11 directory, which doesn't make much sense anymore. One
solution would be to build them in the tcltk and sdl directories,
respectively. Another is to put all apps in the top directory, as is
already done for the Mac and Windows apps. I think the latter option has
some advantages, since it makes it easier to find the apps for the
inexperienced user. The top directory is also the only location where the
apps work consistently on all platforms.

Hans