Author: Dave Gomboc
Date: 23:11:39 10/11/99
Go up one level in this thread
On October 11, 1999 at 22:23:41, Dann Corbit wrote:
>On October 11, 1999 at 14:10:01, Robert Pawlak wrote:
>[snip]
>>The people I know that are doing cross-platform development use Qt and cygnus
>>products. Disclaimer - I am not one of these people :-)
>>
>>As far as popularity goes, I think if you write for linux, then you will be
>>restricting the audience significantly for your product. That being said, any
>>chess program with a decent engine and some database features will have a
>>captive market. The only real alternative at this moment is Xboard, which does
>>have some limitations.
>I like Xboard/Winboard better than any other chess interface -- especially the
>commercial ones. The worst interface I know of is CM, which is also the most
>popular *shrug*.
>
>>Personally, I would like to see a good linux chess program, somewhat along the
>>likes of Fritz, but I am probably in the minority right now. When win2k comes
>>out, expect to see the FUD poured out of Microshaft at an incredible rate. Since
>>MS has a heavy influence on some of the computer magazines, you can expect to
>>see at least a few comparisons that cast doubt on the viability of Linux.
>>Regardless of the merits of the OS, bad press can really keep people away.
>Crafty and Phalanx are both of excellent quality. Crafty is nearly on a par
>with the commercial engines. Perhaps better in some particular cases. I
>suspect that the Linux audience has in Crafty + Xboard + {one of the chess
>database systems mentioned here for Linux but I have not tried} will suit all of
>the current user's needs. The actual market for those using Linux and who are
>willing to shell out to buy a chess program is (a wild guess by me) very small.
>
>
>>Bottom line - my uneducated opinion is to hedge your bets and stay platform
>>independent as long as possible. Frank made a good suggestion regarding Qt...
>Now here, I could not possibly agree more.
>In 1988 Microsoft said that the future was OS/2. We should all spend our effort
>porting towards that aim, as it was the wave of the future.
>
>Oops.
>
>Predicting the future is nearly impossible. Soooooooo.....
>
>Make the part of your program that can be maximally portable as portable as
>possible.
>
>Separate the interface parts out and make them as abstract as possible the the
>system specific calls as isolated as possible.
>
>Then you are ready to handle any direction that the market may turn. Five years
>from now it may be Windows 2003 Rev 92B that is the rage. Or maybe Linux or
>Mac. In my fond hope it would be OpenVMS -- but I won't hold my breath for that
>one!!!
Do tell us the reason for you "fond hope"? :-)
Dave
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