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WPS Classes Clone

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Martin Iturbide:
I'm opening this thread to discuss the WPS Classes clone idea. I'm sorry I hijacked other threads.

Why WPS?

I'm learning more about WPS with time, but I still think that is a valid approach for creating the resources that manage the OS/2-eCS desktop.

The Re-usability idea
When you create a new class to create a new object on WPS you don't start from scratch. You have several other classes that you can re-use to build your class (WPClass, WPObject...all)

Look for example the HWman class replacement. The goal of this was to improve some issues that the original "Hardware Manager" has.  The author did not start creating a "Hardware Manager" by scratch. He made a "child" of the hardware manager class (HWManager) and replaced (overide) only the functionality that has the issues.  So in fact he coded less.

Expandable
You can also expand the functionality of objects on the WPS. By creating a "child" of the classes you can expand

Just look again the HWman class replacement. The author fixed the behavior of a close source program. I had never saw that, in general if you don't have the source code of the program, you can not expand it or improve it.

Down Side
But I also think there are some downsides:
- We depend on the old IBM somcompiler. (sc.exe)
- We need to learn how WPS works before improving it / replacing it with OSS components.
- Having this flexibility also grows the complexity. We need to have and understanding on how are the WPS Classes structured.

Actions:
For the moment my actions are simple on this subject:
- Trying to include more documentation about WPS on the EDM/2 Wiki
- I'm trying to document the UML visual design of WPS Classes (attachment included).

If anybody wants to help me with this starting point I will appreciate it. It does not matter if only have some minutes at week.

My UML is very rusty.

Martin Iturbide:
By the way.

Since this year we also have this documentation source available for the public:
http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Object-Oriented_Programming_Using_SOM_and_DSOM

Regards

Dave Yeo:

--- Quote ---Down Side
But I also think there are some downsides:
- We depend on the old IBM somcompiler. (sc.exe)
--- End quote ---

This is the killer. Until an open source sc.exe is written, working on the WPS is limited to people with the tools. Tools that are not commonly available.
I'd suggest that if you want to work from the top down, then the top would actually be the tool chain to work on the WPS.
Also in writing the tool chain knowledge about the WPS internals would be learned.

Martin Iturbide:
I agree with you Dave. We need an open source sc.exe compiler for an open WPS/SOM to succeed.

But I just want to add that on the OS/2 platform sc.exe is available for download and use. It is on hobbes and on the eComStation CD#2.

Ben:
How can this be done?

Is there something upon which to base a new SC.exe?

Or would a new one have to be developed totally from scratch?

Are there old sources in the Developer's Toolkit that can act as a guide for a new, open sourced version?

I'm not writing about using the original sources directly, but is there nothing that can be used just as a guide.

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