winequartz.drv Mac OS X UI discontinued?

Adam Strzelecki ono at java.pl
Mon Jul 7 04:41:52 CDT 2008


> We are very interested in Wine having a more native OS X interface.
> However, our analysis is that the task is difficult and will require a
> long time to stabilize and get right.  I am excited by and  
> interested in
> Emmanuel's work, but I am told not to be too excited, that it's not
> a magic bullet, and that the bulk of the hard work is still ahead.

But it is fairy complete, since a long while. It lays in the front of  
your eyes so why don't put it into the Wine's repository, as it is the  
most obvious way for the others to polish and stabilize it.

> We have a long history of hiring proven Wine developers and thereby  
> sponsoring
> their work.  We do that as much as our income will allow, gated by  
> peoples
> ability and willingness to work with us.

Look, I don't think you need to hire anybody. There're numerous  
talented developers as Emmanuel or Mike that did great Wine packaging  
at kronenberg.org that would help to put all the code together. I  
shouldn't speak for them, but just note that both of them do all their  
work already for free.
I'm willing to help too, I'd be happy if I could send some patches  
improving Mac support.

> To answer the seemingly implied question: "Are we deliberately  
> crippling Wine for Mac OS X
> to serve our own nefarious ends", the answer is no.  That's in no  
> small part because our main
> nefarious end is to improve Wine :-).

Very well, my previous mail was intentionally perversive just to cheer  
up everybody for Mac discussion.

> Did we make a decision to focus on an X11 based solution for Mac OS  
> X?  Yes,
> for the time being.  The advantages are that it's here now, works  
> now, and that most
> of what we do now also benefits Linux and other platforms.  The  
> disadvantage, apparently,
> is that people suspect us of all kinds of nefarious plots...

Well it would be me then :) So why just not put Emmanuel's work into  
Wine repository, while there're lot of other incomplete modules. Let's  
give it a chance.

> And, on a final note, just so its clear:  the contract between  
> CodeWeavers and Alexandre
> is very explicit:  CodeWeavers gets *no* say in what does or does  
> not go into Wine. We probably curse his decisions as much or more  
> than any Wine developer, and whether or not Objective C
(...)
> The point is that CodeWeavers has no control over whether or not  
> Emmanuel's code goes into Wine.  That's entirely Alexandre's decision.

OK, I'm sorry. I don't want to accuse anybody, I just made a false  
equation between Alexandre and CodeWeavers taken from About Us page.
It was just said once that winequartz.drv won't go into official Wine,  
and the top reason was Objective-C and this was just a bizarre  
decision for me. Objective-C is almost as old as C++ and it was just  
chosen for an object model of OSX (NextStep previously) in opposition  
to pure C messaging of Windows and C++ for COM interfaces, etc. So  
IMHO no for Objective-C means no for decent Mac OSX support, period.

Best regards and thank you all for your replies,
-- 
Adam Strzelecki |: nanoant.com :|




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