Re: AbiWord's use of MFC

AbiWord developers: jo (see below) asked whether AbiWord uses MFC. My
understanding is it does not, and I answered him with this email and
started a new series of DevFAQs and a DevFAQ for this particular
question
(http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/preview/Abiword/DevFAQDoesAbiWordUseMFC)
(I suppose I should start calling them RAQs ;-)

jo,

I think you would be much better off asking your questions on the
abiword-dev or abiword-user's lists (e.g., abiword-dev@abisource.com,
subscribe by sending an email with the word subscribe in the subject and
header of an email addressed to abiword-dev-request@abisource.com).

I am not a developer, but just an interested bystander.

jo@ecs.fullerton.edu wrote:
> I just got your email address from the AbiWord's document.

It would be nice if you were more specific (which AbiWord document?) --
I may need to clarify that document so people tend to use the existing
resources (the mail lists (above) or the TWiki based FAQ, or ???).

> I have just learned MFC with VC++ and look at the source code of AbiWord.
> Was it written in MFC? It does not look like using MFC.

I am almost 100% sure it is not written in MFC. AbiWord is written to
be a cross-platform application (i.e., to work on Linux, Windows,
MacIntosh, and others). There are several approaches to doing this,
   * writing a native version for each platform
   * using a toolkit (like, I'm not sure of the new name, is it
winwidgets or something like that) that works on several platforms
(another is QT, and there are others))
   * I'm quite certain there are other ways (in addition to those listed
above and that below)
   * AbiWord (iiuc) went their own slightly different way. Their code
is divided into common code (not sure what they call it) (C and/or C++)
that works on all platforms, and then platform specific code. It is
possible (I don't know) that some of the platform specific code is
written using MFC, although I rather doubt it, as it (MFC) seems to have
a reputation for being rather difficult to use and bloated.

> Could you briefly explain what kinds of library packages were used to build GUI
> for AbiWord.

I can't recall (and just barely ever knew) -- I suggest you ask on the
developers list.

> My current goal is to analyze the GUI part of AbiWord source.

Wonderful! I hope you will share the results of your analysis in a
logical location -- my suggestion would be the AbiWord TWiki based FAQ
(either as an FAQ, or as just one or a series of pages on the TWiki).

> To learn about library package that AbiWord used, I would like to find some
> documents and books.
> Is there any document to explain how to implement AbiWord?

There are some documents, ask on the dev list and review the TWiki and
web site, www.abisource.com.

regards,
Randy Kramer

PS: I never like to answer the same question twice, so I'm adding this
question to the TWiki based FAQ, just as is. May I suggest / request
that, as you gain additional information, you modify that (this) FAQ
appropriately to help the next person?

Please:

   * Review the following sources:
      * AbiWord website (home): http://www.abisource.com
      * AbiWord (TWiki based) FAQ, lead page:
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/AbiWordFAQ
      * AbiWord FAQ, your question (i.e., this email):
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/DevFAQDoesAbiWordUseMFC

   * Subscribe to one or both of the AbiWord mailing lists, and re-ask
your question there
   * Modify the FAQ of your question as you gain useful information
Received on Mon Nov 15 15:55:23 2004