winBe
The BeOS API on Win32
News
28 Jun 2002
At long last, an update. And the source download link is fixed. I'm now using the boost libraries (v1.28.0) to handle threads.
23 May 2002
Mentioned on beforever.com
What is it?
winBe is a C++ library which allows BeOS applications written in C++ to be compiled and run on Win32 platforms i.e. Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP. The source code is released under the Gnu General Public License.
To reduce the amount of development work involved winBe will draw heavily from the source code contributed to the OpenBeos project. Initially I'm concentrating on getting the Application Kit, Interface Kit and Support Kit supported.
What tools are needed?
winBe has been developed with Visual C++ 6 sp5 but there's no reason why it should not be usable with the Borland or Gnu compilers.
Project Status
winBe is not yet complete. Proof-of-concept source is available for download, however.
The proof-of-concept has the following limitations (in no particular order):
- It's currently using the downloadable Be header files. To prevent any possible legal problems I'll be switching to the OpenBeos headers ASAP
- tint_color produces the wrong results - controls are looking very strange. Can anyone supply a reasonable alrgorithm for this function?
- BMessages are being sent through the Win32 message queue. This is a temporary measure until a proper Be message queue is implemented
- Occassional crashes on close down - probably because locking is not implemented properly yet
- Absolutely no thought has been given to performance optimization at this stage
How can I help?
You can contribute to the winBe code base or port an existing Be application to Win32 using winBe. The Be sample code provides a great pool of simple applications to get started with.
If you want to contribute to this project contact me at [email protected].
Screenshots
Downloads
| Date | Version |
|---|---|
| 20 Jan 2002 | Preview release 1 source (zip) (Removed) |
| 20 Jan 2002 |
Hello World Win32 binary (exe)
Demonstrates multiple windows, each with their own thread, controls invoking messages and correct application shutdown. |
| 28 Jun 2002 | Preview release 2 source (zip) |
| 28 Jun 2002 | Hello World Win32 binary (exe) |
