[linrad] Re: Windows graphics again

["Dr. David Kirkby" <drkirkby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Why is it possible under Linux only ?

> If Linrad becomes common among Windows users in the ham 
> community, I think an awareness of how easily one can 
> change it and give modified versions to friends should 
> encourage a lot of (particularly younger) hams to take
> the challenge:-) Today they do not know what Linrad is, not
> even that it exists.

From my experience with atlc, there are perhaps 100 users, but I suspect only a few percent of them 
modify the code.

> > 1) If you write text files, use fp=fopen("foo","rt") or fopen("foo","wt").
> >
> > UNIX silently ignores the "t" for text or "b" for binary, but for 
> > Windows it is important.
>
> Hmmm, I am opening the text files like this: fopen("foo","w") or
> fopen("foo","r"). I have not noticed any problems other than
> the usual one that Windows uses return and line-feed while 
> Linux only uses one of them.

I've certainly seen problems. It may have been writing binary files, I can't recall. But I think it is 
safer to put the "t" or "b". The software I wrote for transmission lines was not working properly on 
DOS and was found to be the lack of the "t" (or was it "b" ??) option. Adding it got it working 
properly on both platforms.

> > 2) If it compiles on Windoze and your favorite Linux (Redhat or 
> > whatever) don't assume it will compile 
> > on all Linux/UNIX systems.
>
> OK. Actually it compiles under Linux only. 

I'm confused. You have Windows binaries, but it only compiles under Linux.
Perhaps you use Cygwin?


> > 3) If you write binary files and use short, int or long, then pay 
> > attention to the fact that some 
> > hardware (x86 for example) is little endian, whereas other UNIX 
> > hardware (such Sun's SPARC processor) 
> > use big endian.
>
> OK, but I write for Intel x86 only. Some code is in Intel assembly
> (for multimedia instructions)

With PCs getting faster each year, there is less and less need to go to assembly code, but perhaps 
there is no option. Some programs have a switch which compiles in assembly code. The chess program 
"crafy" is one such program. It will compile on any UNIX system but there are optimized assembly 
routines for some systems.

> My goal is limited. I will make Linrad available as source code for
> Linux (any distribution from RedHat 6.1 and upwards) 

Does that mean only Redhat?

> and as an exe
> file for Win98, Win2000 or WinXP. I am more interested in new algorithms
> than making Linrad available on more platforms;-)

But new algorithms are more likely to appear if more people can compile it, which means making it more 
portable. I tried compiling it under Solaris on SPARC and soon realised it was very Linux dependant. I 
gave up at that point. I apprecaite the number of SPARC users for ham software must be quite low, but 
if the code only compiles on Redhat, you are seriously restricting the user base.

--
Dr. David Kirkby PhD CEng MIEE,
Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Medical Physics,
Mallet Place Engineering Building,
Gower St,
University College London,
London WC1E 6BT.


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