We've talked about it quite a bit, but not got far.  Has anyone actually undertaken the task of translating the Windows API headers into D?

If not, I hereby propose we get started on it now!  We can do this as a team effort, with each member translating one or more of the Windows .h files.  I suggest we proceed as follows:

1. Decide on some rules.  I have some ideas for rules, as well as a few open issues in this respect, which I'll post a bit later (assuming I'm going to get some interest in this project).

2. Set up a page on Wiki4D for the project, which would enable individuals to 'take' individual modules that they're going to work on.

3. Find somewhere to keep the translated modules for the time being. Maybe dsource?

Stewart.

-- 
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Stewart Gordon wrote:
> We've talked about it quite a bit, but not got far.  Has anyone actually undertaken the task of translating the Windows API headers into D?
> 
> If not, I hereby propose we get started on it now!  We can do this as a team effort, with each member translating one or more of the Windows .h files.  I suggest we proceed as follows:
> 
> 1. Decide on some rules.  I have some ideas for rules, as well as a few open issues in this respect, which I'll post a bit later (assuming I'm going to get some interest in this project).
> 
> 2. Set up a page on Wiki4D for the project, which would enable individuals to 'take' individual modules that they're going to work on.
> 
> 3. Find somewhere to keep the translated modules for the time being. Maybe dsource?
> 
> Stewart.
> 

Can't we just resort to a tool like h2d?

In article <ctdc6n$2e4l$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Stewart Gordon says...
>
>We've talked about it quite a bit, but not got far.  Has anyone actually undertaken the task of translating the Windows API headers into D?

Yes. More than one person, in fact.

For example: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA028375/d/windows.h.html

>
>If not, I hereby propose we get started on it now!  We can do this as a team effort, with each member translating one or more of the Windows .h files.  I suggest we proceed as follows:
>
>1. Decide on some rules.  I have some ideas for rules, as well as a few open issues in this respect, which I'll post a bit later (assuming I'm going to get some interest in this project).

I've heard there's some header-to-D programs out there. We should probably make use of some of those.


>
>2. Set up a page on Wiki4D for the project, which would enable individuals to 'take' individual modules that they're going to work on.
>
>3. Find somewhere to keep the translated modules for the time being. Maybe dsource?

Kind of like http://www.dsource.org/projects/core32/?

>
>Stewart.

jcc7

zwang wrote:
<snip excessive quote>
> Can't we just resort to a tool like h2d?

Oh, I hadn't realised that someone had actually undertaken to write h2d.  It must've slipped through my reading.

In any case, I doubt we can *just* resort to it.  We'd need to deal with the FIXME comments, and the output could probably do with some tidying anyway.  That's before you consider the other possible inadequacies of such a tool....

Stewart.

-- 
My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox.  Please keep replies on the 'group where everyone may benefit.

>>3. Find somewhere to keep the translated modules for the time being. Maybe dsource?
>
> Kind of like http://www.dsource.org/projects/core32/?

What's the state of that project? I think it makes sense to try to make that one the "standard".

-Ben

> Can't we just resort to a tool like h2d?

But wouldn't the output be owned by Microsoft still and we'd need their permission to distribute it?

J C Calvarese wrote:
> In article <ctdc6n$2e4l$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Stewart Gordon says...
> 
>> We've talked about it quite a bit, but not got far.  Has anyone actually undertaken the task of translating the Windows API headers into D?
> 
> Yes. More than one person, in fact.
> 
> For example:
> http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA028375/d/windows.h.html

Just looking at it (with the aid of Google's translator):

1. It's been compressed in an obscure format I'll have to investigate. And then evaluate it once that's done.

2. Does anyone have any guesses of what the W and A columns mean?

3. What's with some of them being labelled as "Never"?  Are they beyond the scope of this particular project just because they're not in the include tree from windows.h?

<snip>
> Kind of like http://www.dsource.org/projects/core32/?

Just looked at this one.  Not bad, but I guess it could be cleaned up a bit.  And why is the WNDPROC definition commented out?  And what is version(STANDALONE) about?

Stewart.

-- 
My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox.  Please keep replies on the 'group where everyone may benefit.

"Vathix" <vathix@dprogramming.com> wrote in message news:opslbh4lsfkcck4r@esi...
>> Can't we just resort to a tool like h2d?
>
> But wouldn't the output be owned by Microsoft still and we'd need their permission to distribute it?

I've been wondering about that, too. The header file for winuser.h says "all
rights reserved". So does that mean we can or can't run it through a
translator and distribute the result? I don't know. IANAL but by reserving
all rights and not saying we can do anything I take it that means we can't
do anything without their permission.
I've never liked putting restrictions on header files - it seems
counter-productive.

-Ben

In article <ctdk6d$2ols$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Stewart Gordon says...
>
>J C Calvarese wrote:
>> In article <ctdc6n$2e4l$1@digitaldaemon.com>, Stewart Gordon says...
>> 
>>> We've talked about it quite a bit, but not got far.  Has anyone actually undertaken the task of translating the Windows API headers into D?
>> 
>> Yes. More than one person, in fact.
>> 
>> For example: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA028375/d/windows.h.html
>
>Just looking at it (with the aid of Google's translator):
>
>1. It's been compressed in an obscure format I'll have to investigate. And then evaluate it once that's done.

I guess he's still using 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) for archiving. I use it
all the time (they compress pretty well), but I usually don't upload it to
websites.

>
>2. Does anyone have any guesses of what the W and A columns mean?

I think it's something like Wide (2-byte UNICODE) and ANSI (or ASCII?). I've
never quite understood that convention.

>
>3. What's with some of them being labelled as "Never"?  Are they beyond the scope of this particular project just because they're not in the include tree from windows.h?

I don't think he plans on converting everything. "Never" would be a file he doesn't want to convert.

>
><snip>
>> Kind of like http://www.dsource.org/projects/core32/?
>
>Just looked at this one.  Not bad, but I guess it could be cleaned up a bit.  And why is the WNDPROC definition commented out?  And what is version(STANDALONE) about?

These are some very tedious files. They can always be cleaned up a bit. Ad infinitum.

I don't know about the WNDPROC issue. It was probably commented out for a reason. I'm sure it can be commented back in (but it should probably be versioned out then).

Someone would compile with version(STANDALONE) if they don't want to import
std.c.windows.windows.

The default (compiling without STANDALONE set) has many of the conflicts with
Phobos versioned out. (When I find a conflict, I go into the code and add a
version(STANDALONE).)

>
>Stewart.

jcc7

In article <opslbh4lsfkcck4r@esi>, Vathix says...
>
>> Can't we just resort to a tool like h2d?
>
>But wouldn't the output be owned by Microsoft still and we'd need their permission to distribute it?

I think you're right, but we should be able to get around that by using MinGW's (http://www.mingw.org/) public domain headers for Windows.

We've discussed this earlier at dsource, but I haven't gotten around to doing anything about it yet. (http://www.dsource.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2262#2262)

jcc7