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List:       vim-dev
Subject:    Re: Vim's future ?
From:       "Dan Sharp" <dwsharp () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2002-11-13 15:20:17
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>From: Michal Vitecek <fuf@mageo.cz>
>
>>I'm afraid I don't know what you mean with a "Vim engine".  It seems
>>to be irrelevant for the discussion about using Vim as a component
>>anyway, since the user would still want to type all the possible Vim
>>commands in it.
>
>  i think vim-engine could be a set of methods or functions that would
>  for example do:
>     - given cursor position and buffer, delete two words
>     - given cursor position and buffer, insert character
>     - etc.
>
>  the advantages of such engine are obvious: you've got an editing
>  engine and if you wrap it with module that handles and translates  the 
>commands from keyboard or a scripting language to a set of
>  method/function calls, IHMO you've got a fairly well embeddable
>  editor.

The way I always imagined it would be (for Win32, for example):

Create an .exe from os_w32exe.c, gui_w32.c, gui_w48.c, gui.c,
       and maybe main.c
Create a .dll from everything else

While there wouldn't be as much benefit on Win32, I could see on Unix having 
a dll from the same components as above (i.e., "everything else"), and 
multiple .exes could be built with the appropriate gui_*.c files for Motif, 
GTK, Athena, and KDE GUIs.  That way, instead of having a 1.x meg executable 
for each type, you would have a single large DLL and several small 
executable front ends.  This separation would allow more front-ends, like 
perhaps a "component front-end" to be built as well.

Of course, this is based on little familiarity with the Vim code.  The 
console code has not been pulled out of the DLL in the above example, and I 
don't know how easy this would be to do.  Also, how dependent on the GUI is 
the implementation code (like syntax highlighting, cursor movement, etc.)?

Anyway, just my thoughts on the subject, however unrealistic and naive they 
may be.

Dan Sharp

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