Re: [platform-swt-dev] SWT-Design Decisions

[Peter Centgraf <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Northover wrote:
> What is a "binding for any GUI-Toolkit"?  Sorry for my ignorance.

I believe what he refers to here is e.g. the GTK+ binding of SWT vs. Win32 vs. 
Carbon.  There is no interface which enforces a uniform common-denominator API 
for all platform-specific implementations of a particular class, such as 
Button.  What process is in place to verify that the GTK Button class stays 
fully compliant when the API is extended?

I would point out, as a possible justification, that what is required is full 
binary compatibility.  Writing your platform-specific code to match an 
interface would be necessary but not sufficient.  Maintaining an interface 
would be misleading, since a clean build would not guarantee a working build. 
 A bytecode verifier tool is a better fit for the requirements.  Given all 
that, what is the benefit that justifies the performance hit of an interface?

Aside: Does the SWT release process actually use such a verifier tool?  How do 
you control this internally?

--
Peter