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List:       kde-cygwin
Subject:    Re: Work on KDE/QT native port to MS Windows started.
From:       Adam Treat <manyoso () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2002-12-24 14:22:07
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Oh man this is very cool!  Quite a few people have wished for a GPL'd Qt \
for windows.  We have some windows programmers that are interested in \
providing Qt# on windows.  A few have even expressed interest in a project \
like yours.  I'll make sure to pass the message along and see if we can't \
help with the WndProc functions.  You might want to ask the wine folks for \
this also and it is important to note that if you could try building your \
project with wine it'd probably be suitable for regular windows.

I am going to have a try with your stuff just as soon as possible and see \
if I can't compile Qt# against it ;)  Thank you so much man, this is \
incredibly good news.  Now if we can get an enterprising MAC developer to \
port Qt/X11 to Aqua then we might have a truly cross-platform GPL'd Qt ;)

Once again, _thanks_, this was a nice christmas present!

Adam

BTW, I think a GPL'd Qt that can be compiled with mingw32 will be the best \
end result.  Cygwin can be used to provide KDE.

--- Holger Schroeder <holger-kde@holgis.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> the short form of this is: i started porting QT for X11 to Windows. I can
> already open a window on the screen and draw to it, but i will need a \
> long time or some help to get the message passing stuff of windows \
> integrated. 
> discussion of this will be on kde-cygwin@mail.kde.org.
> 
> And now the long one: 
> 
> QT on Windows native readme by holger...
> 
> The Big Picture
> 
> I think it is time to have KDE on windows now. i was using only linux for
> about a year now, and then i got an ibm thinkpad with windows xp \
> preinstalled, and i had to work with it for university. when working on \
> windows, i really missed a lot of the usability and consistency i was \
> used to in kde. internet explorer can only log into ftp sites as \
> anonymous, mozilla can only download files from ftp sites, i didn't find \
> any sftp client, network neighborhood did not work at all, to transfer \
> files to/from other people involved installing ftp clients and servers \
> for all these people. i was told that windows xp was the most stable \
> windows ever, half an hour later i made it reboot, but not by hitting \
> start->reboot, but by unpacking an archive file from the cygwin \
> installation. i crash this notebook several times a day... 
> so i thought about having kde on windows. i wanted a usable set of \
> programs on windows on the one hand, and on the other hand i think it \
> would be easier to convince people that linux/kde is better than windows, \
> when they could test the "linux gui"/kde on windows for some weeks and \
> then decide, if they still need the windows os under the kde gui.
> 
> so i started looking into "porting" kde to windows.
> 
> What works today:
> 
> today you can download and inatall a version of kde 2.2 for cygwin. this \
> is kde on windows with the restriction, that all kde windows are in a big \
> XFree window. this is mainly like a vmware window running windows, only \
> the other way around. from the normal user point of view this is not that \
> cool, it is a proof of concept, but for example you can not play Tron, \
> because the delay in the system is to big for that "fast" game.
> but from the programmers point of view this proves, that kde on windows \
> is possible. look at www.cygwin.com, cygwin provides a posix \
> compatibility layer for windows. that means, you compile your normal mc \
> for linux and it works in the cygwin environment. cygwin also comes with \
> a x-server, to which the programs can draw. this is was kde on cygwin \
> does. for screenshots look at kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net.
> so you can already compile windows binarys of kde today, thanks to the \
> cygwin and kde-cygwin people. the only thing missing for kde on windows \
> without this X11 layer inbetween is a QT for windows library.
> 
> looking into qt:
> 
> qt is a platform and operating system independent gui toolkit. you write
> programs based on qt, and then you can compile them for linux, other \
> unixes which have X11 servers or for embedded devices running linux, like \
> the sharp zaurus or you compile them for mac os or for ms windows. look \
> at www.trolltech.com for more information on qt. the opera browser from
> www.opera.com is an example for a platform-independent application.
> kde uses almost only qt methods and almost no native X11 or operating \
> system functions in the different qt programs for opening windows on the \
> screen and displaying stuff in them.
> qt is licensed under different licenses. qt for x11 is licensed under the \
> GPL. that means, i can change the sourcecode like i want, as long as i \
> give out the changed sourcecode for free and do not build and sell any \
> binary only changed version of qt.
> qt for windows, qt for mac os and qt for x11 are also licensed under a \
> commercial license, which allows customers to build and sell programs \
> based on qt without having to give out the source code of their programs.
> 
> looking into the source code of qt for x11, only about fifteen files in \
> the sources are x11-dependent. they can be found in the src/kernel \
> directory of the qt sources. they are all named *_x11*. as the qt sources \
> consist of several thousand files, the trolltech people did a very good \
> job on creating this toolkit. in these files there are the \
> implementations of the methods to open a window, paint stuff in them, \
> like lines and rectangles and so on, to draw pixmaps on them, to draw \
> text of a special font in a special size on them and to communicate with \
> the underlying window system, for example to implement drag and drop and \
> copy and paste with other windows or to get mouse or keyboard events from \
> it. 
> as the gpl allows me to port qt-x11-free to windows, i started doing it.
> i am able to open a window on windows, resize it, move it on the screen, \
> draw points, lines and rectangles in it, fill them in different colors \
> and with different brushes, draw in different colors. The fonts stuff is \
> still not done, but i can write text with it already. The methods to get \
> the size of characters or strings on screen are still missing, so the \
> placement of strings is not as it should be, but i think i will get that \
> done in the next time. 
> there is a lot of stuff that can be left out for later, like sound and \
> drag and drop or cut and paste stuff.
> 
> i guess i finished about a quarter of what has to be done to be able to \
> basically run qt on windows in beta quality. there is only one area, \
> which i do not understand until now, and that is the windows message \
> system, which seems to be needed to get mouse and keyboard events as well \
> as repaint and window move and other stuff. also i still need to slightly \
> modify the sourcecode of qt programs to be able to start them. i have to \
> insert a WinMain and a WndProc function into the qt application sources, \
> as i couldn't figure out how to do that stuff in the qt library sources.
> 
> so i am searching for some interested people, which do know how to help \
> with this stuff. 
> to get a start at this, you need a ms windows system, i have windows xp \
> professional. then install cygwin from www.cygwin.com. then look at \
> kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net and follow the instructions to install KDE 2. \
> you somewhere have to enter the url from where you want to download the \
> packages. be sure that you do not enter any leading or trailing spaces in \
> this field, as the setup program doesn't understand that :(.
> when you have kde running, install the stuff needed to compile qt 2, like \
> gcc and so on, it is all mentioned on kde-cygwin. when i started playing \
> around with this qt 3 was not yet working on cygwin for me, so i started \
> with qt 2. once qt 2 is running, it should take about a day to apply the \
> needed changes to qt 3 to get it working.
> then follow the instructions to compile qt 2 from the cvs sources at
> cvs.kde-cygwin.sf.net and test if some of the tutorial and example \
> programs work for you to be sure that everything works until here.
> 
> then you can download my qt-win sources from http://holgis.net/qt-win.
> unpack them and compile them
> 
> cd into the tutorial/t1 directory and type make, that should build the \
>                 changed
> ./t1.exe. start it and see what it does.
> now you can start fiddling around with the sources. for now ignore all \
> directories except /tutorial/t1 as this is the test program and \
> /src/kernel as here are the files, that need to be adopted. the original \
> files for X11 are named *_x11*, the windows ones i made with the X11 ones \
> as templates are named *_win*. i changed the makefiles to not compile the \
> _x11 ones but the _win ones. 
> the qpainter_win.cpp, qpixmap_win.cpp and qfont_win.cpp files are for \
> drawing on the screen, you have to look here, if you want to make that \
> better. when you want to get this message/event stuff working, you have \
> to look into the qapplication_win.cpp and qwidget_win.cpp files.
> 
> it was quite useful to me to look at the sources of the SDL library 
> (www.libsdl.org), as they also open windows on the screen and draw to \
> them, and the microsoft development network, search for it with
> gg:msdn gdi
> and you will find some relevant stuff, but for me mozilla was the better \
> browser for those pages.
> 
> Happy hacking !
> 
> 
> 
> i plan to get a sf account and create a branch in the kde-cygwin qt-2 \
> repository, if i am allowed to do so. i will spend the next two months \
> hacking on this, let's see how far we will come until then.
> 
> NOTE: This is not to fool the Trolltech people, they are really doing a \
> great job. I think, that as well as many kde programmers use qt for \
> commercial projects at their companies and generate income for trolltech \
> this way, qt on windows will convince more people to use qt. Imagine you \
> could use konqueror, kmail, koffice and kdevelop instead of internet \
> explorer, outlook, ms office and visual studio at no cost and even \
> develop gpl`ed programs with that for free. as kdevelop recently was \
> mentioned as the best ide for linux beating kylix besides others \
> according to a dot.kde.org article, i guess we could convince quite some \
> people not to use .net and switch to qt for their next projects. but \
> let's see how far we will come.
> Holger 
> holger-kde@holgis.net
> 
> 


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