Hi,
Question:
Is it possible to port the Be library or the part related to UI applications to other operating systems such as Windows or Linux? Is it possible to say: “You can develop your graphical app in Gnome, Qt, Windows UI API, but also BeAPI SDK”. This BeAPI SDK port can even have its own website.
Benefits
If the BeOS APIs are good then they should be a major selling point. A lot of Be APIs will always be available only in Haiku, but the UI APIs related to windows, dropdowns, etc should be more portable. If people have these BeAPI to develop graphical apps on Windows or Linux then not everyone will compile its app for Haiku, but porting these apps to Haiku should be much more easier, if not trivial, when they decide to do that or the project is open source. This will allow more apps to come to Haiku on the long term. Or the other way around Haiku -> other OS. Currently it is not so inspiring to start my commercial app in BeOS UI APIs if I know that I will be locked only on the Haiku platform or I will need to spend time and money on re-writing it.
Expected problems
I know a lot of people will jump that Be architecture is different, everything is a thread, etc. The native Be graphical library is probably using a lot of things that are part of the OS, so this will make the port much harder.
Is it worth it?
Please, please:
- stay on the topic, do not discuss icons in this topic or other irrelevant stuff such as past experiences, memories, etc.
- do not express emotions, just give clear arguments
- do not post one liners, these are hard to interpret and for sure miss the argument part
- do not act as you are all mighty knowledgeable, I will think you are 14 years old