easy. Put simply, Wind/U delivers the functions of the Windows API to Unix developers.
With Wind/U, virtually everything you create in
the Windows development environment of your choice simply "walks" over to Unix and
runs after a recompile
. Wind/U's not an emulator; all its functions are native Unix and native OSF/Motif. Its Motif approximations of standard Windows elements like common dialog boxes are perfect. They're recognizably Motif in their appearance, but the layout is Windows.
HyperHelp, another Bristol module included in PowerBuilder for Unix, compiles Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) or Rich Text Format (RTF) definition files into Windows-style .HLP files. This lets you maintain one set of on-line docu-mentation for a multitargeted app and also take advantage of HyperHelp's hypertext viewer, which is better than any Unix help system we've seen.
Bristol's XPrinter module simplifies the task of getting data from an application to a printer. Unix developers well know how hard it can be to "talk" to a printer. XPrinter provides the hooks that create a very elegant Windows-like connection
between your application and your printer.
Of the 1.5 million lines of C/C++ code in PowerBuilder, PowerSoft says it had to modify only 3 to 6 percent for the Windows-to-Unix port--an astonishingly low number. The upshot is that one person can handle the porting work for an application that may have taken a building-full of engineers to create.
illustration_link (5 Kbytes)
PowerBuilder recompiles Windows apps in Unix and links them to Bristol Technology's Wind/U library to generate native Motif code. This maintains identical functionality between Windows and Motif versions.
Wind/U Opens Windows to Unix
