Re: Implementing an e-learning application

Hi Otto,

On Nov 9, 2008, at 8:25 AM, Otto Diesenbacher wrote:

> So - we are thinking of building that stuff in lispworks. May I ask
> you some questions or get some ideas?
>
> 1. Is it possible to start an delivered lispworks-application from a
> read-only medium (f.e. cdrom or dvd) without installing libraries or
> other dependencies on the target-system (average Win32)?

I'm not a Windows guru, but I think the answer is no if you are using  
LispWorks 5 or later. Windows XP needs some system files installed to  
run LispWorks or a delivered application.

>
>
> 2. If yes, how much time takes it to start an lispworks-application
> from an average cdrom-drive? Do you think it would be bearable for an
> user?

I've found LispWorks and delivered applications to have very good  
startup time on both Mac and Windows.

>
>
> 3. Would you go the way of implementing the GUI with CAPI? Exspecially
> because of embedding the multimedia objects. Are there any CAPI  
> addons/libraries
> for embedding mp3 or video-components? Any ready to use control
> components?  (I didn't find anything related in the CAPI-Manual of the
> personal Lispworks edition. Just one hint on the mailing list by Edi
> Weitz
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.lisp.lispworks.general/7874/match=embed+video) 
> .
>
> Or are there better ways you would suggest? CL-SDL? other Framworks?

On the Mac you can embed a browser in a window to do what Edi suggests  
in the above link. But there is no cross platform comprehensive API.

I don't know of any other mature Lisp GUI frameworks for this. You  
might want to look at the Mozilla framework (search for "XUL Runner")  
or WxWidgets.


>
>
> 4. Our main-target platform is windows, but we are aware of porting
> this application also to MacOS - how portable ist CAPI?


Very portable. For features not covered by CAPI, you have to work in a  
lower-level, platform specific interface. A lot more work, but still  
possible.




John DeSoi, Ph.D.