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(ProteanThread)
ie wrapper perhaps ?
http://gamma.nic.fi/~point/xana.htm
About XANA
Helsinki, October 22, 1999. XANA initiative was announced today.
XANA stands for eXtensible Applications Native Approach.
It is all about building software applications. Everyone involved
in this process need to know the right or better way to do this.
Components, object-oriented programming model and multi-tier distributed
techniques are skeleton parts of design decisions nowadays.
What XANA does exactly mean? In a few words, it is the software
applications development approach, which does recognize the fact that
there are different platforms with different programming language
capabilities. Each platform has its own programming language set best
suited and supported on that very platform. Programming language can be
selected based on de-facto platform history, an individual programmer's
preferences, convenient (RAD) development environment availability, and,
not the least at all, the runtime speed, effectiveness and
interoperability with native services available on that platform. Almost
every platform has its own set of toughly integrated services build-in
just on that particular platform (UNIX vs. Windows, etc.). It is not a
secret that the competition and manageability trends lead to even worse
dispersion in that area (Linux).
So we can rise the question here: Why anyone would be willed to
write his own infrastructure and common services for applications
manageability, security, transaction management, load balancing, etc.?
Or why anybody would want to re-write ALL his/her software applications
just to accommodate the coolest language available for the moment?
Success of any high level programming language depends on its
capability to effectively utilize platform APIs, services and other
means. With as thin and as fast as possible additional layers to make
the job done. It is definitely bad that you are going to have yet
another wrapper upon native platform, its API plus possible GUI API
extensions. And it is even worse if at the same time you are going to
bypass much of usable infrastructure possibly made available for any
application on some platform (Windows, BeOS), which is equal to
writing/purchasing a lot more of code and bugs in one way or another.
Does it make any sense? Why anyone should look itself into single
language and/or platform, knowing that totally unified solution to
everything is more absurd than utopia? Can't we get the performance with
existing high-speed compilers, native APIs and already wrote services?
Certainly, we can.
The bad solution is forcing everyone to one language that may be
obsolete a few years later. Trying to unify native APIs for different
platforms seems to be almost impossible. However, this task may be very
attractive in the future for the next generation of platforms with
somehow standardized OS. Creating additional high level APIs upon native
ones almost for everything is not so great either (costs performance).
XANA initial goal is providing approach and a base line for
implementation of distributed network applications, which have
interoperability based on widely accepted standards, on time, on budget,
on different languages, with best performance using native platform's
means. Discussion about implementation principles of XANA in distributed
environment is outside this context.
However, even a simple, one-tier application without database
access, can benefit from XANA. This program is the little example of
XANA approach. Instead of writing complex Web browser component from
scratch, the program is using built-in MS Windows native WebBrowser
component. Actually, the same WebBrowser component used internally by MS
Internet Explorer application and has plenty of features for processing
HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, SSL, OLE, Windows Explorer shell,
plug-ins etc. Using this component ensures some basic level of
compatibility with upcoming versions of MS Windows and Internet
Explorer. While WebBrowser can be used with quite broad set of
programming languages, the language of choice for implementation of user
interface is Borland Delphi. Currently Delphi has one of the best
available features set. Its proven component library, clear Object
Pascal syntax, good support for native OS API calls, reliable
programming environment with very fast and feature rich compiler are
main advantages here. Composition of principles above makes the solution
quite straightforward.
Result of this work is XANA Web Browser, product that is oriented
mainly as a follow-up watch browser.
Main differences from major browsers already available are:
customizable by user's preferences interface with multiply resizable
groups of tabbed notebooks and browsers
user interface settings are preserved between sessions by using native
Delphi VCL streaming techniques
multiply interfaces for different tasks can be used for different
application instances as a GUI configuration file sets
improved browsing security protects loaded documents from intruder's
access and manipulation
valuable tool for investors around the globe, see screenshots and eQ
Online samples on download page
XANA Web Browser is FREEWARE. It is free for any kind of usage permitted
by legal copyright and a good will. It's a kind of Karmaware. The
program is also free from any reminder screens, registration prompts,
annoying banners with sponsoring requests, time looks, etc. Registration
is not even possible - it would be against Freeware spirit and Karmaware
mentality
XANA Web Browser, as the product of XANA approach, can be extended and
customized for special needs. Anyhow, the derived product will be
commercial and thus not free of charge. This is the primary reason for
decision not to make XANA Web Browser source code available
Please, note that XANA Web Browser is experimental software made by
inspiration to proof some technical concepts. Try and use it for free,
but don't expect too much. Its GUI is clearly rude and has no drag-drop
nor decent bookmarks management support yet. The software is currently
in field test stage. It contains many bugs and major problems.
Implementation of some parts may be incomplete. The project has been
suspended, although some progressing for bug fixing or slow development
is possible. Author takes no responsibilities for possible damage or
harm caused by installation (which is not even required ;-), evaluation
and utilization of this program. While response on users' requests is
not promised as such, everyone evaluating the program has the right to
ask questions or help to make things better. Moreover, users' feedback
can impact on project status, further development and even the program
availability for general public.
http://gamma.nic.fi/~point/xana.htm
About XANA
Helsinki, October 22, 1999. XANA initiative was announced today.
XANA stands for eXtensible Applications Native Approach.
It is all about building software applications. Everyone involved
in this process need to know the right or better way to do this.
Components, object-oriented programming model and multi-tier distributed
techniques are skeleton parts of design decisions nowadays.
What XANA does exactly mean? In a few words, it is the software
applications development approach, which does recognize the fact that
there are different platforms with different programming language
capabilities. Each platform has its own programming language set best
suited and supported on that very platform. Programming language can be
selected based on de-facto platform history, an individual programmer's
preferences, convenient (RAD) development environment availability, and,
not the least at all, the runtime speed, effectiveness and
interoperability with native services available on that platform. Almost
every platform has its own set of toughly integrated services build-in
just on that particular platform (UNIX vs. Windows, etc.). It is not a
secret that the competition and manageability trends lead to even worse
dispersion in that area (Linux).
So we can rise the question here: Why anyone would be willed to
write his own infrastructure and common services for applications
manageability, security, transaction management, load balancing, etc.?
Or why anybody would want to re-write ALL his/her software applications
just to accommodate the coolest language available for the moment?
Success of any high level programming language depends on its
capability to effectively utilize platform APIs, services and other
means. With as thin and as fast as possible additional layers to make
the job done. It is definitely bad that you are going to have yet
another wrapper upon native platform, its API plus possible GUI API
extensions. And it is even worse if at the same time you are going to
bypass much of usable infrastructure possibly made available for any
application on some platform (Windows, BeOS), which is equal to
writing/purchasing a lot more of code and bugs in one way or another.
Does it make any sense? Why anyone should look itself into single
language and/or platform, knowing that totally unified solution to
everything is more absurd than utopia? Can't we get the performance with
existing high-speed compilers, native APIs and already wrote services?
Certainly, we can.
The bad solution is forcing everyone to one language that may be
obsolete a few years later. Trying to unify native APIs for different
platforms seems to be almost impossible. However, this task may be very
attractive in the future for the next generation of platforms with
somehow standardized OS. Creating additional high level APIs upon native
ones almost for everything is not so great either (costs performance).
XANA initial goal is providing approach and a base line for
implementation of distributed network applications, which have
interoperability based on widely accepted standards, on time, on budget,
on different languages, with best performance using native platform's
means. Discussion about implementation principles of XANA in distributed
environment is outside this context.
However, even a simple, one-tier application without database
access, can benefit from XANA. This program is the little example of
XANA approach. Instead of writing complex Web browser component from
scratch, the program is using built-in MS Windows native WebBrowser
component. Actually, the same WebBrowser component used internally by MS
Internet Explorer application and has plenty of features for processing
HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, SSL, OLE, Windows Explorer shell,
plug-ins etc. Using this component ensures some basic level of
compatibility with upcoming versions of MS Windows and Internet
Explorer. While WebBrowser can be used with quite broad set of
programming languages, the language of choice for implementation of user
interface is Borland Delphi. Currently Delphi has one of the best
available features set. Its proven component library, clear Object
Pascal syntax, good support for native OS API calls, reliable
programming environment with very fast and feature rich compiler are
main advantages here. Composition of principles above makes the solution
quite straightforward.
Result of this work is XANA Web Browser, product that is oriented
mainly as a follow-up watch browser.
Main differences from major browsers already available are:
customizable by user's preferences interface with multiply resizable
groups of tabbed notebooks and browsers
user interface settings are preserved between sessions by using native
Delphi VCL streaming techniques
multiply interfaces for different tasks can be used for different
application instances as a GUI configuration file sets
improved browsing security protects loaded documents from intruder's
access and manipulation
valuable tool for investors around the globe, see screenshots and eQ
Online samples on download page
XANA Web Browser is FREEWARE. It is free for any kind of usage permitted
by legal copyright and a good will. It's a kind of Karmaware. The
program is also free from any reminder screens, registration prompts,
annoying banners with sponsoring requests, time looks, etc. Registration
is not even possible - it would be against Freeware spirit and Karmaware
mentality
XANA Web Browser, as the product of XANA approach, can be extended and
customized for special needs. Anyhow, the derived product will be
commercial and thus not free of charge. This is the primary reason for
decision not to make XANA Web Browser source code available
Please, note that XANA Web Browser is experimental software made by
inspiration to proof some technical concepts. Try and use it for free,
but don't expect too much. Its GUI is clearly rude and has no drag-drop
nor decent bookmarks management support yet. The software is currently
in field test stage. It contains many bugs and major problems.
Implementation of some parts may be incomplete. The project has been
suspended, although some progressing for bug fixing or slow development
is possible. Author takes no responsibilities for possible damage or
harm caused by installation (which is not even required ;-), evaluation
and utilization of this program. While response on users' requests is
not promised as such, everyone evaluating the program has the right to
ask questions or help to make things better. Moreover, users' feedback
can impact on project status, further development and even the program
availability for general public.