NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27

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Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!ames!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!att!dptg!ucs!skdutta From: skdutta@ucs.att.com (Saumen Dutta) Subject: C++ Product List - Version 2.04 - Part 6/8 Message-ID: <1992Nov18.022923.717@ucs.att.com> Organization: AT&T Universal Card Services, Jacksonville FL Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:29:23 GMT Lines: 676 3.9. Zinc _ _ ____ + Platform: DOS + This was the most commonly mentioned library for DOS. It was generally praised. Several people noted the documentation could be more helpful but the tech sup- port phone people seemed to make up for that failing. One respondent noted his release didn't handle variable fonts but said that may be fixed in the current release. The only respondant to explicitly mention using Zinc in graphics mode found it "intolerably slow." + Information provided by bennett@math.ksu.edu 3.9.1. Netcomments _ _ _ ___________ From abw@dsbc.icl.co.uk (Andy Wardley) POINTS FOR.... The Zinc Interface Library "...gives a fast nice GUI, that somewhat reminds me of windows.", "the library is well-designed." and "you can get it to do most things and its Windows capabilities are at last getting into shape." "I will also add that I'm very impressed with the company. My friend who has it told me he got an update in the mail without even asking and he was offered a Windows version (beta?) from their BBS for free. Very impressive for a software company." "For DOS I've heard it's very good but their Windows version is buggy, but I think they're coming out with a much-improved version" "See a recent c.l.c++ summary of PC GUI libs -- it did well." "We are developing DOS applications using Zinc (with Borland BC++) and are reasonably well-satisfied with it. Our application is not pushing Zinc very hard, however. We are using it in graphics mode, although we are mostly putting text objects & menus on the screen." "They provide much sample code & studying it is essential." "Tech support is free & good; they have a BBS." "But as a UI library it is really great. They have just released version 2.01 with a lot of bug fixes this means it is pretty solid now." "The design tool saves a lot of time. The documentation is extensive and good. There is a lot of good example code too." POINTS AGAINST... "The Zinc designer has lots of bugs and quirks, but you can get around them" "Some things could have been better done, and is surely better implemented in the OS of the Macintosh." "For top-professional use there are some limitations. We even considered returning the package. But if you can live without a 100% product, but rather a late beta, then this is for you." "It took me a while to get into their approach, partly because their documentation goes into detail but seems to leave out overviews." "The library is somewhat lower level than I would like. For example, check boxes and dialog boxes are not built-in, but they provide examples to show you how to build them." "They do not currently support variable fonts, although their tech support told me it is planned for a future release." "Incidentally, applications seem to be pretty large with it." "The major problem I have with it is I wish it worked with a DOS extender under Zortech" OTHER POINTS... "If you can't find what you need in the docs, then look in the sources" "Rumours says that they are working on Macintosh, OS/2 and UNIX version too. Apple programmers has seen an early version of the mac version." REVIEWS IN... Dr. Dobb's (12/90), Computer Language (12/90) PC Week (12/26?/91). Byte (01/91) SUMMARY... It seems that generally, people are happy with it and think it's a good UI library. The older version (pre V2.01) was slightly buggy, particularly in the designer and the MS windows parts, but this has mostly been fixed in V2.01. Most of the bugs had work arounds. The library is fast and flexible, although radio buttons, check boxes etc, are not built in classes and have to be derived from existing classes - fairly easy for the more advanced programmer - maybe slightly difficult for others.. Documentation, was reasonable in the older versions and is now greatly improved in the new one, with over 1100 pages. Technical support from the company was generally regarded as VERY good. Thanks to people who contributed... pope@daimi.aau.dk (Povl H. Pedersen) jamshid@emx.utexas.edu (Jamish Afshar) ferdie@coyote.datalog.com (fred jarvis) borkoles@dcs.qmw.ac.uk ajb@ee.wpi.edu (Arthur J Butler) 3.10. Starview C++ Graphical User Interface Library _ __ ________ _ _________ ____ _________ _______ + Designed to be independent of OS and Hardware vendors + Author: Andreas Meyer, STAR DIVISION Contact: STAR DIVISION GmbH Andreas Junge Zum Elfenbruch 5-11 D-2120 Lueneburg Phone: ++49 4131 700943 Fax: ++49 4131 700921 Email: ...!unido!starlab!aj + The development of large applications for Graphical User Interfaces (GUI's) like MS-WINDOWS, MS Presenta- tion Manager or OSF/Motif is a very time consuming job. In addition, the application programming interfaces (API's) of the different GUI's are totally incompatible making a direct port of source code to another GUI platform impossible, almost all code driving the user's interface must be re-written by the programmer. Two years ago, STAR DIVISION decided to develop a set of new applications for GUI's which should fulfill the requirements of modern software standards this entails: - Portability between the operating systems MS-DOS, OS/2, Macintosh and different UNIX flavours - At least portable between the GUI's MS-WINDOWS, MS-Presentation Manager, MacApp and OSF/Motif - Fulfillment of the requirements of the different GUI Style Guide's - Data exchange and direct communication between the applications in homogeneous and heterogeneous net- works (groupware approach) Because of the indifferent "political" situation (i.e. MS-DOS or OS/2 or UNIX or everything, WINDOWS or PM or X.11 or everything) we decided to develop a set of tools which helps us to be mostly independent from the decisions of the OS and hardware vendors. In addition tools help to improve productivity and are the base for a successful software project. C++ is the programming language of our choice because we could use our large experiences in C programming and C++ provides all major advantages of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) that is - from our point of view - the best available paradigm for complex software development today. + Information provided by Dave Riches (dsr@bnr.co.uk) 3.11. TEGL Library _ __ ____ _______ + Supported on Borland C++ + Address not known + Price around $99 + One respondant faulted it for "ignoring CUA" while another praised it as having the look and feel of presentation manager. The source code apparently is not highly polished and it does recommend using more than one mouse button. + Information provided by Andrew G. Bennett (bennett@math.ksu.edu) 3.12. Linpack Math Library _ __ _______ ____ _______ + MSDOS, UNIX, and many other platforms including a vec- torised version of CRAY + Commercial software from: Rogue Wave Software Inc. 1325 NW 9th Street, Corvallis, OR, 97330, (503) 754-2311. + No information on the compatability with the proposed ANSI/ISO standard + The classes are available now. Prices range from $199 to $995 for Matrix.h++ and $299 to $1195 for Linpack.h++. + Linpack.h++ is an object-oriented C++ version of the widely used Fortran library. Linpack.h++ includes 100% of the functionality of the Fortran version, plus much more. Because Linpack.h++ is written in C++ it has capabilities that far exceed the Fortran version. Both Matrix.h++ and Linpack.h++ are completely compati- ble with Rogue Wave's other C++ class libraries, Tools.h++ and Math.h++, which are accepted standards in the industry. Matrix.h++ includes all the funtionality of Math.h++. For example: general matrices, vectors, statistics, complex numbers, Fast Forier Transformation (FFT's), etc. Matrix.h++ adds specialized matrix classes such as banded, symmetric, positive-definite, Hermitian, tridiagonal, etc. Because Matrix.h++ includes Math.h++, it can take advantage of Math.h++'s highly optimized low-level assembly routines, making it fast as well as graceful. + Information provided by Dave Riches (dsr@bnr.co.uk) 3.13. Objectkit\C++ 1.0 _ __ ___________ _ _ + Commercial software available from: ParcPlace Systems, Inc. 999 E. Arques Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Tel: (408)481-9090 Sales: 1-800-759-7272 email: info@parcplace.com + Features the AT&T Standard Library Extensions: - variable length bit strings - adjustable 1-d vectors of parameterized type (implemented via macros) - classes for date, time-of-day, timezone and time- duration arithmetic - finite state machine classes - simple exception handling using Objection classes - parameterized linked lists (parameterization via macros) - associative arrays (i.e., keys/value associations) - fast memory allocation class: Pool - program execution time measurement class: Stopwatch - String class and specializations of iostream and streambuf for String As a convenience for purchasers, Objectkit\C++ 1.0 also includes the NIHCL and InterViews class libraries as *unsupported* free software. Objectkit\C++ OI - based on technology licensed from Solbourne, OI is a C++ class library for rapid develop- ment of graphical user-interfaces that allow runtime selection of OSF/Motif or OPENlOOK look-and-feel. + Information provided by Mike Khaw (khaw@parcplace.com) 3.14. MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class Library) _ __ ___ _________ __________ _____ _______ + Included with the MS C7 compiler. Please refer to the Microsoft Compiler section. + Includes complete source. Supports all standard memory models. Supports DLLs [dynamic link libaries aka shared Libraries]. Also sometimes referred to as AFX "Application FrameworX", and/or "The C++ API for Microsoft Windows" + Information provided by: jimad@microsoft.com 3.14.1. Introduction _ __ _ ____________ MFC's primary design goals are to provide an efficient, compact, fast, easy-to-use, typesafe, and portable version of the Windows API for the C++ programmer. A secondary goal is to provide Collection classes, diagnostic memory manage- ment, etc, for DOS and Windows programmers. MFC is imple- mented without the use of language-extensions, allowing the library to be ported to other C++ conformant compilers [although right now MFC is only shipping with the C7 com- piler.] MFC closely follows the naming conventions and use of the "C" Windows API so that programmers experienced in Windows programming find it easy to switch from C to the C++ APIs. However the "lower level" aspects of Windows program- ming are improved upon by MFC. For example wparam, lparam packing/unpacking is handled automatically and in a type safe manner. Also the main message loop is handled automat- ically. Switch statements are replaced with the use of vir- tual functions and/or cached message dispatch that avoid slow message searches. Finally, the C++ Windows classes are implemented in such a manner as to remain compatible with the C implementations, such that Windows programmers can still use the C APIs where desired, and/or can mix old implementations of Windows classes implemented in "C" with new Windows classes written in C++. Namespace collisions with other libraries are avoided by using an uppercase "C" prefix on the MFC Windows classes. MFC includes support for OLE, DDE, Multimedia, and Windows for Pen Computing. Appli- cations written using MFC are automatically pen aware. 3.14.2. Window Application Classes _ __ _ ______ ___________ _______ CWinApp Main windows application class Window Classes CWnd Base class for all windows CFrameWnd Main window base class for the SDI (Single Document Interface) desktop window CMDIFrameWnd Base class for the MDI (Multiple Document Interface) desktop window CMDIChildWnd Base class for MDI child windows CDialog Base class for modeless dialog windows CModalDialog Base class for modal dialog windows CButton Button control windows CComboBox Combo box control windows CEdit Edit control windows CListBox List box control windows CScrollBar Scroll bar control windows CStatic Static control windows GDI (Graphical Device Interface) Classes CDC Base class for display contexts CClientDC Display contexts for client areas of windows CMetaFileDC Metafile device contexts CPaintDC Display contexts used in <OnPaint> member functions CWindowDC Display contexts for entire windows CGdiObject Base class for GDI drawing tools CBitmap GDI physical bitmaps CBrush GDI physical brushes CFont GDI physical fonts CPalette GDI physical palettes CPen GDI physical pens CRgn GDI physical regions Other Windows Classes CMenu Menu structures CPoint (X, Y) points in a device context CSize Relative positions or coordinate pairs CRect Rectangular regions in a device context OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) Classes OLE Classes Object Linking and Embedding Classes Run-Time Object Model Class CObject Root class in the Foundation class hierarchy File Classes CFile Binary disk files CMemFile In-memory files CStdioFile Buffered stream disk files, usually text mode Object Input/Output CArchive Persistent storage for objects CDumpContext Destinations for diagnostic output Exceptions CException Abstract base class for exceptions CArchiveException Archive-specific exceptions CFileException File-specific exceptions CMemoryException Out of memory exceptions CNotSupportedException Function not supported exceptions CResourceException Windows resource not found exceptions Collections CByteArray Arrays of bytes CDWordArray Arrays of 32-bit double-words CObArray Arrays of CObject pointers CPtrArray Arrays of void pointers CStringArray Arrays of strings CWordArray Arrays of 16-bit words <template array class> CObList Lists of CObject pointers CPtrList Lists of void pointers CStringList List of strings <template list class> CMapPtrToWord Mappings of void pointers to 16-bit words CMapPtrToPtr Mappings of void pointers to void pointers CMapStringToOb Mappings of strings to CObject pointers CMapStringToPtr Mappings of void pointers to CObject pointers CMapStringToString Mappings of strings to strings CMapWordToOb Mappings of 16-bit words to CObject pointers CMapWordToPtr Mappings of 16-bit words to void pointers <template map class> Miscellaneous Support Classes CString Character strings CTime Absolute time and date values CTimeSpan Relative time and date values Global Functionality Diagnostic Services Global memory diagnostic functions and macros (Debug only) Exception Processing Global exception throwing and catching functions and macros Message-Map Reference CWnd message map entries with message-handler function prototypes 3.15. NetClasses _ __ __________ + Commercial software available from: PostModern Computing Technologies, Inc. 1032 Elwell Court, Suite 240 Palo Alto, California 94303 Telephone: (415) 967-6169 Facsimile: (415) 967-6212 Email: plambeck@cs.stanford.edu + No information on compatability of the future ANSI/ISO standard. + NetClasses is a set of C++ class libraries for distri- buted object-oriented communications that will begin beta testing June 15 and is scheduled for production release in the 3rd quarter of 1992. + Information provided by Thane E. Plambeck <plambeck@cs.stanford.edu> 3.15.1. Introduction _ __ _ ____________ One of the major stumbling blocks of developing and fielding complex distributed applications is the difficulty in implementing and debugging using existing communication tools. The focus of the NetClasses architecture has been to provide the tools necessary for programmers to develop com- plex distributed applications without having to deal with the esoteric details of low-level communications. NetClasses is a set of C++ class libraries that is organized as a software toolkit. The typical user of the NetClasses libraries will be a distributed systems application developer who requires an object-oriented framework for dis- tributed, message-passing based programming. By linking the appropriate NetClasses libraries, application programmers are then able to: + Transport objects over a network. Currently, there are three object varieties that NetC- lasses can transport: 1. Arbitrary C++ objects---once derived from PostModern's TransObject class 2. arbitrary NIH-derived objects; and provide an object-oriented data transport in which the struc- ture and organization of network transportable objects is specified externally in configurable files using a simple, programming language independent abstract syntax notation, the NetC- lasses Abstract Syntax Notation (NASN). + Perform remote method invocations (RMI) Using RMI, an application on machine B can invoke a method on machine A. RMI insulates distributed applica- tions from the complexity inherent in traditional, RPC-based distributed systems development tools such as protocol compilers, TCP/IP code writing, and detailed socket handling. RMI makes fault tolerance and connec- tion management transparent to the application program- mer. The RMI layer is built on top of the distributed services package that is described below. + Build complex information distribution systems on top of Distributed Services, PostModern Computing's object-oriented approach to client-server connection management and fault tolerance. + Use the NetClasses application programmer interface in order to create, manipulate, and destroy typed objects given NetClasses Typed Object data type definitions. (NIH-derived and native C++ objects are created, mani- pulated and destroyed from C++ itself). + Read and write all three varieties of NetClasses- transportable objects on streams using machine- independent external representations. All three varieties of objects can be stored to and read from files. 3.15.2. Objects as transportable data _ __ _ _______ __ _____________ ____ One of the most common needs in distributed applica- tions development is the ability to ship objects over a net- work. Currently, when data has to move from one machine to another this is usually done using hard-coded structures over a low-level communications interface such as Berkeley sockets or the System V Transport Layer Interface. Moving data in this way has several disadvantages: + If the format of the data changes, e.g. a new field must be added to a structure, all programs using that structure must be recompiled, whether or not they actu- ally make use of this new field. + Developing programs using low-level interfaces require programmers to concentrate on details such as sockaddr structs, byte ordering routines such as htonl, port numbers, and so on. These are details that are irrelevant to most applications and simply stand in the way of efficient distributed application programming. + Because of the low-level nature of the interfaces, the resulting distributed programs are generally not very scalable. In order for distributed programs to scale up to large size implementations it is necessary to provide an infrastructure whereby data and processes can be managed efficiently as the number of machines on the network grows. This has proven to be very diffi- cult using low-level interface tools. Engineers developing distributed systems using object- oriented methodologies place great emphasis on data encapsu- lation and clean interfaces. One of the goals of NetClasses has been to preserve these properties in the communication interfaces. Therefore, instead of shipping byte buffers over the net- work, NetClasses allows applications to ship objects. In an object-oriented program virtually all information is stored in objects, making objects the most natural form in which to transfer information over a network. 3.15.3. Varieties of object transport _ __ _ _________ __ ______ _________ PostModern Computing's NetClasses package provides a set of flexible C++ tools for object transport. The NetClasses NIH-based and Typed Object-based transports are built on top of the National Institutes Health (NIH) class library. However, the NetClasses Typed Object appli- cation programmer interface is not NIH-dependent. In par- ticular, the Typed Object interface does not in any way con- strain C++ developers who prefer not to use the NIH library themselves. The TransObject transport offers C++ programmers a third facility for object transport that is entirely NIH indepen- dent. The TransObject class library offers end-user appli- cation programmers a way to migrate existing C++ class definitions to a network-transportable framework. The Tran- sObject facility is independent of both the NetClassses Typed Object transport and the NIH-based object transport described above. 3.15.4. Distributed Services _ __ _ ___________ ________ In addition to transporting objects over a network, another common need in distributed application development is the management of object dissemination and connections between clients and servers. PostModern Computing's Distributed Service paradigm is a connection and service management mechanism that is organ- ized around the idea that network service providers should not have to set up explicit port numbers and RPC connections but rather should simply ``advertise'' themselves on the network. ``Agents'' are active processes on the network that monitor network service advertisements and manage con- nections between information producers and consumers. The Distributed Service package is organized as a combination of C++ class libraries and configurable ``dsagent'' execut- ables. The Distributed Services paradigm is a powerful and flexible package that provides an object oriented framework for integrating and connecting applications on a network. Distributed Services provides the following features: + Fault Tolerance + Load Balancing + Multicasting 3.15.5. Remote Method Invocation (RMI) _ __ _ ______ ______ __________ ___ The distributed services paradigm enables methods to be invoked on objects from remote machines. The RMI facility is a higher level communications facility that again shields the developer from port number and host name considerations. The focus of RMI is on ease of use. An RMI invocation requires no stub or skeleton files, protocol compilers, or RPC mechanisms. To enable object X of class C to have its method M invoked from a remote machine, a programmer uses the RMI::advertise method to advertise method X.M. If an application wants to invoke the M method on object X from a remote machine, it uses the RMI::invoke("X.M") method. Parameter passing in RMI can be based on any of the three NetClasses object transports (generic C++, NIH-object, or TypedObject). Synchronous and asynchronous RMI versions exist. Multiple agents can advertise method X.M. The one that is actually invoked is transparent to the client. RMI thus provides an easy mechanism for developing scalable distri- buted applications. 3.15.6. Transport mechanisms _ __ _ _________ __________ In the first developer's release, NetClasses includes TCP- and UDP-based object transport mechanisms. PostModern's Reliable Broadcast Protocol (now under alpha testing) is a UDP-based layer for reliable object transport in nonconnection-oriented environments. The TCP, UDP, and Reliable Broadcast Protocol facilities are all organized as C++ class libraries.