Champion

Frank Buss

Proposal

The goal is a Lisp distribution, with a rich set of libraries, which helps to create standard GUI applications, which are easy to install by an end user, like other programs on the respective platforms. The distribution itself is such a program (maybe with CLISP, but the source for building such applications should work with other Lisp implementations, too, e.g. LispWorks and AllegroCL). Lisp scripts automate the creation of install packages. Supported platforms are Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Volunteers

• Frank Buss -- Windows programming, testing for LispWorks on Windows, Mac and Linux
• Artur Maciag -- interested in 2D and 3D gaming, wxCL, MySQL and Postgres connection, wants to help with CFFI
• Justin Heyes-Jones -- CFFI wrappers for SDL, game programming, AI
• Luke J Crook -- Utility functions & macros for SDL. CFFI wrappers for SDL_gfx, SDL_ttf, SDL_image, ODE, OpenRM, OpenGL and (perhaps Cal3D).

Tasks

Write your name after the task, if you want to work on it, to avoid duplicate work. More than one name per task is possible, the mailing list can be used for coordination. Another idea: if a task looks too large and someone wants to work only on a part of the task, split it into multiple top level-tasks or sub-level tasks.

• base system for Windows with CFFI mapping for windows.h (volunteers: Frank Buss for creating the windows.h mapping, Surendra Singhi for bugfixing the SWIG CFFI generator)

  The first goal of this task is a Lisp package, which maps anything you would have when you do an "#include " in an Microsoft Windows C program. With this package it is possible write Lisp programs, which uses the Windows APIs like C programs can do, e.g. creating a Window and running a message loop for it in Lisp. This should work with CLISP and LispWorks, to verify that it is implementation independant. The complete base system should be a set of scripts, which can produce standalone applications. You just write your "HelloWorld.lisp" and call '(deliver "HelloWorld")' with your Lisp implementation of choice and the result is a "HelloWorld.exe", which runs on every Windows system (starting with Windows 98 SE, no support for Windows 95 or earlier versions). Other libraries, like the portable thread library, should work together with it, to allow to create Lisp implementation independant multitasking Windows programs.

• base system for Mac OS X and CFFI mapping for Carbon

  Like for the Windows mapping, the first goal is to provide the Carbon framework for Lisp as a package. The reason to use Carbon is that it is easier to integrate, because it is a procedural framework, compared to the object oriented Cocoa framework (like MFC(=Cocoa) and GDI(=Carbon) on Windows). Later this could be enhanced to Cocoa, if someone wants this. After this, a set of scripts should be provided to create a standard Mac OS X "Application Bundle" and to pack it as an Internet distrubutable ".dmg" file (which is simply a call to "hdiutil create -srcfolder YourApp.app yourapp.dmg", but documentation is needed, e.g. that the developer has to install XCode, if needed for the hdiutil etc.).

• base system for Linux and CFFI mapping for X11

  X11 is a very limited system when it comes to GUI elements like text fields or buttons, unlike the Windows GDI or Mac Carbon, which provides this and other higher level elements. But to provide access to the lowest portable level on Unix, this mapping is needed. Games, which doesn't need some usual looking input elements, can use this level without problems. Part of this task is to do some research, which mappings are useful, too, e.g. GTK (which is the base of GNOME) or Qt (which is the base of KDE) if it is simpler to use than wxCL, maybe with this project.

• sample application for all platforms, which uses the native platform mapping: a simple REPL, with an input text area, an output text area and a button to execute the input text

  For this task it would be nice to start a simple pure-Lisp GUI framework, which uses the native platform mapping. Then you have only one source and just call the '(deliver "repl")' on every platform and the result is the sample application. The goal is to provide all files, which are needed to create this sample application on all 3 platforms.

• providing SDL (OpenGL is included) for game or custom GUI applications

  Sub-task: translating some SDL examples to Lisp, which uses the mapping (of course, platform independant with the goals of the previous tasks).

• providing/writing wxCL or other cross platform GUI libraries

  Sub-task: translating some wxCL examples to Lisp, which uses the mapping.

• cross platform sample standard GUI application: an IDE, which can create install packages

  The idea is to create something like Eclipse for Lisp programs in Lisp. Perhaps wxCL should be used for it, or the pure Lisp GUI framework, if feature rich enough. The first implemenation can be as easy as providing a text area for the REPL, a file menu, a simple project manager dialog and an export button.

• cross platform sample 2D game with sound

  A cool game, which demonstrates how easy it is to write applications with the Application Builder, as was done for Lua Player, because it provides an easy to use set of operations for image handling, sound output and input handling. The base could be SDL, but a simple to use gaming library on top would be nice.

• cross platform sample 3D OpenGL application: a 3D viewer, which supports multiple input formats, like STL, VRML and DXF

  This is the base for other 3D applications and demonstrates the ability of Application Builder for serious CAD programs. Perhaps wxCL should be used for it.

• other applications, e.g. a frontend for PLaSM

  PLaSM uses a functional description language for 3D constructions, which is implemented in Common Lisp. The idea is something like the Windows version of POV-Ray for PLaSM scripts: You have an editor, where you can enter a script and with a button you can create a OpenGL animation of the scene, where you can rotate, zoom etc. with the mouse. Perhaps the 3D viewer can be used as the base for this applications.

Free Lisp implementations for the base system

CLISP is able to create an EXE file containing a Lisp image that can be started without a console. The Lisp image linking should work with Win32, Mac OS X and Linux. SBCL has a similar feature.

Project results

To ease the initial learning curve and for general ease of use, a release of Application Builder for the three supported platforms should include a free Lisp implementation and all required libraries. A sub-project should be packaged in such a way as to minimize inter-package dependencies, allowing a package to be downloaded and used independently of other sub-projects. For example, it is possible to download and install only the SDL mapping into the Lisp environment of your choice. Please be mindful of this when working on tasks.

Milestones

• date: TBD: base system for all three platforms, with delivery script and native hello world GUI application
• date: TBD: SDL CFFI mappings and SDL sample applications
• date: TBD: full CFFI native mappings for Windows, Mac and X11
• date: TBD: wxCL CFFI mappings
• date: TBD: the rest

SVN project repository

Checkout the repository using "svn co svn://frank-buss.de/clab" ("clab" is an acronym for Common Lisp Application Builder). Send me an eMail for write access.

The above repositry is obsolete. Appbuilder can be gotten from SourceForge with "svn co https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/lispbuilder lispbuilder"

The project repository is updated daily to the Common Lisp Application Builder webpage. This webpage is the same as that contained within the repository. You will have a local copy of the documentation (as webpages) after retrieving the project from the repository. Feel free to add anything which is needed for the tasks to the repository. The repository can be refactored if it becomes too chaotic as SVN allows files and directories to be moved or deleted.

Mailing Lists

• Application Builder discussion
• Application SVN commit notify, a read only list, where eMails are sent for every commit in the SVN repository

Homepage and Documentation

• Lispbuilder

Categories

Gardeners Projects