Future of NEdit?

[Aaron Hsu]

Hello Erik,

On Nov 24, 2007, at 6:04 PM, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:

> The main problem with nedit as I see it is that it relies on a GUI  
> widget set (Motif) that is not very popular any more and for which  
> the two most common implementations, lesstif and OpenMotif, both  
> have large, different sets of bugs.


While I can appreciate that many people are using other toolkits these  
days, I think it unwise to consider NEdit's use of Motif as a problem.  
Firstly, Motif is far from a dead toolkit. Second, it is for the most  
part, more stable, IME, than the other toolkits around. I expect that  
Motif will continue to be a viable toolkit in the future, and I like  
the fact that NEdit is built on Motif. This helps NEdit to be clean  
and lean, while not hindering the flexibility of the program.

A valid concern is the existence of two implementations of Motif, and  
the relatively large difference in the two implementations. I  
personally would prefer for NEdit to standardize on OpenMotif, but, I  
suppose that is a moot point. My point is simply that NEdit's use of  
the Motif toolkit is not the problem. Motif is a more stable and  
reliable toolkit compared to the others, but a failure to pay adequate  
attention to packaging makes it difficult to synchronize NEdit, Motif,  
and your choice of UNIX installation. I would blame the distributors,  
rather than NEdit or Motif [not that either is problem free].

Aaron Hsu
Email/AIM: arcfide at mac.com
XMPP: arcfide at xmpp.ws
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