Re: [boost] Re: A BOOST GUI Library

From: Gregory Seidman (gseidman_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-04-03 16:41:25

John (EBo) David sez:
} Gregory Seidman <gseidman_at_[hidden]> wrote:
} > I would be delighted with Qt if they would abandon backward compatibility
} > and compatibility with non-compliant compilers; if they were starting from
} > scratch right now they would undoubtedly integrate with the STL and maybe
} > even Boost. Since they almost certainly won't, and since even if they do
} > the licensing will be incompatible with Boost's goals, I propose starting
} > from Qt's design rather than its codebase and wrapping some toolkit(s).
} 
} a minor point on legality... 
} 
} whoever works on this needs to make sure that they are not violating
} relevant laws concerning revers engineering, intellectual property and
} copyright infringement, etc.  Starting from Qt's design may be construed
} as such.  It would be a shame to end up with some elegant software
} system and then have it yanked because of a pending court case -- we are
} potentially competing with business interests here.

One would have to work from the Qt documentation and never look at their
code. Of course, we wouldn't want a source-compatible Qt library anyway
since the whole point of integrating it with STL/Boost is to avoid their
nonstandard containers, strings, keywords, etc. Most importantly, software
design has never been protected intellectual property (except insofar as it
was a trade secret, and since the design is embodied in the GPL'd Qt
source it cannot be considered a trade secret... but IANAL).

} Also, would it be possible to offer such work in the context of an other
} projects like wxWindows?  Would they be open to extending or rewriting
} their class structures and API's?  I have no idea...  Just thinking out
} loud.

It would certainly be possible. There are various projects out there which
attempt to produce a good C++ GUI API. The problem is that the ones which
are attempting STL integration are not attempting platform portability, and
vice versa. Boost has the opportunity to attempt both.

}   EBo --
--Greg