Re: [LINUX5250] x5250 version 0.4.3 released

[Scott Klement <tn5250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Were any new features added to 0.16.5?  I picked 0.16.4 because that was
> the latest when I started working on x5250 in earnest.  I just wanted to
> avoid a moving target.

No, there weren't many new features in 0.16.5, it was primarily bug fixes
due to problems in 0.16.4 that needed to be fixed right after it was
released.  There were only 3 months between the two releases.

However, 0.16.5 was released well over 2 years ago, and to the best of my
knowledge, you didn't start working on x5250 until this year?!  (can you
see why I'm confused?)


> I have some ideas about how I want to approach key mapping.  I also am
> working on a macro interface that should be nice.

The existing macro interface is lacking?

> I certainly agree that x5250 and the windows tn5250 should be similar,
> but I don't think I want to start coding cross platform widgets.
> gtk5250 is probably better for that.  x5250 doesn't even use a widget
> toolkit (that's why the menu is so spartan looking).

I'm not talking about cross-platform widgets.  I'm talking about the same
default keyboard maps, the same default handling of copy/paste, the same
support for local print key (though, that didn't exist in 16.4, so you
probably aren't going to implement it?!)

Users don't care what widget sets you use, only the programmer cares about
that.

What users want is consistency.  If he runs the Windows version, the same
keys do the same thing as they do in the x5250 version.  The same config
parameters are available.  The same macro functionality that's invoked the
same way. and so on...


> But perhaps more urgent is getting more 5250 features into lib5250.  I
> need to work on my enhanced patch more.  Many of the things I want to do
> with x5250 1.0 depend on lib5250 fully supporting all of the 5250
> protocol.

I agree. Adding those features to lib5250 means also handlign them in
cursesterm and winterm as well as x5250.  And again, they should work
consistently across all platforms.

I don't know whether it still makes sense to support GTK or S/Lang.  (In
fact, I never really understood why we supported S/Lang in the first
place, I don't think I've ever heard from someone who is using it!)