RE: Re: xPL announcement/description protocol -- was xPLDiag

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> There is a a fundemental conflict at the heart of these discussions..
>
> Gerry is pushing a cross-platform agenda, which would indeed open up
xPL
> to other users - especially those running Linux who also tend to be
> fairly tech-savvy.  However, we don't write any of our applications in
a
> cross platform manner - in fact, if cross-platform was a goal, that
> would rule out anything written in .NET.  Even my C++ SDK would need
> some effort to port with it's reliance on Windows events to
synchronise
> everything.
>

Whilst "Cross Platform" would create applications that would
(should) work
on almost anything it will inveitably lead to compromise due to the
different capabilities of those platforms.

Windows does have some quite clever features built in that for example make
it very easy to do multimedia using Windows Media Player built into a
webpage in Internet Explorer which is how I have written my own Jukebox.

Whilst I could rewrite the application in PHP instead of ASP, and use MySQL
instead of Access (which would allow the same code to run under Windows/IIS
Windows/Apache or Linux/Apache, I still cant find a way to embed Winamp or
some other media player into a browser in the same way to allow me to
recreate that functionality using another browser.

I am aware that the features that make those things easy are also the same
things that make Windows so vulnerable to hackers etc which is why
tech-savvy people often move to other applications/operating systems.

>
> A lot of the issues that are being discussed (such as whether xPLHal
> should be mandatory) would not be such a problem if we stopped being
> half-hearted about platforms and made a decision between being either
> Windows-only, or a *genuine* cross-platform implementation, covering
> both apps and protocol.
>

The other thing to consider it that whilst several member of this list may
use or be willing to use alternative operating systems, for the majority it
is not a viable option.

Consider the recent "amazement" on the UKHA list by someone
alarmed and
concerned that the BBC had chosen to only support Windows for its
interactive media trial, thereby making it only accessable to about 95% of
the population.

Others on UKHA have tried to migrate family members to Linux/MAC with no
success either because they dont want to change from what they already are
familiar with or because the vast majority of applications are for Windows
only.

I know you can get emulators that allow Windows programs to run on other
platforms but I want to know that when my PIC program fails to compile its
because of a bug in my code, not the compiler throwing a wobbly under the
emulator!

Dont get me wrong, Windows isnt perfect, I have been swearing at it like
mad
for the last couple of weeks with an application that fails intermittantly
but I know for certain that I would be swearing a lot more trying to run it
under Linux!!

One day I will get round to using xPL but at the moment I dont really have
anything I need to use it for!

Regards

Keith