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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    Re: [freeqt] Greetings!
From:       "Heath Isler" <isler () gfherald ! infi ! net>
Date:       1999-02-17 0:28:53
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Hello Matt,

The Harmony Project faded away after the anouncement to make the Qt toolkit
was made opensource.

Heath Isler



>Hello, Team Harmony!
>
>   My name is Matt Heck, and I'm interested in joining your development
>effort.  I work for Surveyor Corporation (www.surveyorcorp.com), which
>basically does some intelligent sensor processing work, as well as
>building some computer-controlled pan/tilt units for cameras, sensors,
>etc.
>
>   Presently, about 90-95% of our core source base is cross-platform,
>working under both Linux (our preferred platform) and Win32 (95, 98, NT).
>This has been an interesting experience, due to the differrences in
>networking APIs and multithreading (we rely heavily on a basic POSIX
>multithreading interface for UNIX, and the Win32 interface also works
>with our API).
>
>   The remaining problem we face is not so trivial: cross-platform GUI
>development.  Our initial research lead us to believe that the Qt toolkit
>was probably the most appropriate library to use.  However, the
>modification limitations in that toolkit-- as well as the lack of open
>source for a Windows implementation-- make us a little leery of it.
>
>   We are strong supporters of the open source concept, as we need to
>release example applications for developers to learn how to control our
>hardware products with, and obviously welcome contributions.  As such, it
>is only appropriate for us to consider any open source efforts, and to
>commit development resources to aid completion of such an effort, if it
>seems likely to solve our problem.  An open source library compatible with
>the Qt API would be excellent-- Harmony, at least in design, appeared to
>go one step further with better multithreading support.  Our applications
>rely heavily on solid multithreading.
>
>   To determine what sort of resources we can commit, we need to have a
>very accurate understanding of the current state of the project and any
>issues or concerns presently threatening its continued progress.  We went
>looking at the status page at http://harmony.ruhr.de/status.html, but it
>seems to be seriously out of date.
>
>   I was not able to come up with complete mail archives, but looking
>through what I was able to find seems to indicate the following:
>
>   * The opinion on Qt's new license is split
>   * Harmony may be getting split into several development efforts
>   * There has apparrently been some concern about possible legal action
>     against the project for reasons I was not able to determine
>   * At least one major contributor has left the project
>
>   Could the members please shed some light on these issues?  Our intent
>would be to continue (or start if not yet begun) an L/GPL-compliant Win32
>implementation of Harmony, with the intent of enabling developers to use
>open source tools for cross-platform GUI development.
>
>   I personally have strong experience with the Win32 API (and a bottle of
>Pepto Bismol next to the docs) as well as the DirectX high-performance
>graphics system (which, for full-motion video display, should be used
>whenever possible instead of GDI).  I also have strong experience with
>Linux development.  I have also worked on several Motif based
>applications, although I am in general a little rusty on X-Windows.
>
>   I'm looking forward to learning more about the present state and
>intentions of the Harmony project.
>
>   Thank you,
>      Matt Heck
>      Development Lead, AKASHA
>      Surveyor Corporation
>      http://www.surveyorcorp.com
>
>____________________
>Matt Heck
>Surveyor Corporation
>

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