Re: [XaraXtreme-dev] Ping

[Alex Bligh <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--On 15 February 2007 10:17 -0700 Jed Frechette <jedfrechette@xxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:

> Doesn't this imply that, over time, the "in the wild" binary would become
> obsolete and likely eventually fail to function as the OS and related
> bits  advance?

CDraw doesn't talk the OS. I'm not sure it depends on any library at
all - I think it's static linked and doesn't depend on any library at all.
So it's pretty age proof.

Yes I agree it that *IF* Xara abandoned it (and I currently have no reason
to suspect they will/might), it would have better support if the source
were available (inevitably) - for instance if Intel processors become
obsolete, it could only work under emulation. However, in practical terms
it is only a few thousand lines of code (see the presentation I gave in
Kent), and it's pretty easy to work out WHAT it's meant to do (if not how
it does it) from how it's called, and though the API isn't the cleanest in
the world, it is an API. So potential developers have the assurance that if
Xara never released the code, Magix got bought by MS or other pointy-horned
events occurred, it would be quite possible (not trivial, but possible) to
convert it to use code from another drawing engine - it might run slower,
but it wouldn't be wasted code. Note that I am not advocating people do
this, merely pointing out it's a "security blanket" for developers.

Alex