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Re: [RTTY] Software question

To: Kok Chen <chen@mac.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Software question
From: iain macdonnell - N6ML <ar@dseven.org>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:49:25 -0700
List-post: <rtty@contesting.com">mailto:rtty@contesting.com>
Further; N1MM Logger is developed in MS Visual Basic, which doesn't
port to non-Windows platforms.

http://n1mm.hamdocs.com/tiki-index.php?page=Program+Development

73,

    ~iain / N6ML


On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Kok Chen <chen@mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 25, 2012, at 11:17 AM, Bill, W6WRT wrote:
>
>> I wonder why some programs such as fldigi are written so they will run on 
>> almost
>> any operating system, and others such as N1MM Logger will only run on 
>> Windows?
>
> Whether you can run a program under various operating systems depends on the 
> development environment (Libraries, Framework) that the developer uses.  If 
> you write for .NET in Windows, you won't expect it to run in Mac OS X, and if 
> you write for Cocoa in Mac OS X, you won't expect it to run under Windows.
>
> fldigi uses the Fast and Light Toolkit (fltk) that has its own GUI and audio 
> API.  In addition to Linux, the fltk Toolkit (libraries, etc) also runs in 
> Windows and Mac OS X.
>
> Thus for example, anything that is built using fltk will be able to run in 
> Mac OS X as long as you have ported the fltk library into the Macintosh.
>
> >From the computer scientist viewpoint, a program that runs under fltk is not 
> >strictly speaking "native."   The developer interfaces with the toolkit's 
> >system calls in the fltk library, and the library in turn translates the 
> >fltk system calls into the native Mac OS X system calls, in case of a 
> >Macintosh.   This holds for things you draw to a window, the action of 
> >pressing a button, passing data to and from sound cards, etc.
>
> As such, you can expect different efficiencies compared to programs that are 
> written to run natively in Windows or Mac OS X.  But that is not really a 
> problem in the modern world, where you hardly eat a few percent of a desktop 
> computer's processor capability to begin with.  And therefore from the user 
> viewpoint, it is "native," as long as you don't mind interacting with a user 
> interface that can deviate from what they are used to with the native 
> programs.
>
> The inefficiencies will also depend on what you are doing -- if you are 
> mostly number crunching (e.g., running DSP code), there is probably zero 
> overhead, if you draw a waterfall to a window, you can expect greater 
> overhead.
>
> The "FL" in fldigi comes from the name of the Toolkit, just as I use "Cocoa," 
> the primary framework in today's Mac OS X, as part of cocoaModem's name.  It 
> is also why fldigi has the "Linux look and feel" when you run it on Mac OS X. 
>  (More accurately, it is the fltk's look and feel.)
>
> Just as you find very different graphical and user interface experience 
> between Windows and Mac OS X, the same is true with anything using the fl 
> toolkit.  When you run fldigi on a Mac, it looks and feels more like a Linux 
> program than a Macintosh program, for example.  I have not tried it on 
> Windows (because I have no computer at the QTH that runs Windows), but I also 
> don't expect fldigi to be as pretty as the Ham Radio Deluxe user interface.
>
> You can read more about the FL toolkit here:
>
> http://www.fltk.org/documentation.php/doc-1.1/intro.html
>
> fltk is not the only environment that is multi-platform.  REALbasic is 
> another common one that runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.  RUMlog and 
> RUMped are for example written on REALbasic, and can probably be tweaked to 
> run on Windows it Tom feels like doing so.
>
> 73
> Chen, W7AY
>
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