• Lack of portability

    From =?UTF-8?Q?Coile=C3=A1n_Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_de_Ghloucester?=@Spamassassin@irrt.De to comp.lang.ada on Sat Dec 6 13:53:05 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.lang.ada

    This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
    while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

    --708268602-638691372-1765025553=:2937087
    Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE
    Content-ID: <4a4c9f5d-4a65-e1fc-9141-40590037df58@insomnia247.nl>

    "This is the orange manual, describing the usage of dvdisaster, a tool for=
    =20
    creating error correction data (=E2=80=9Cecc data=E2=80=9D) for optical med=
    ia such as CD,=20
    DVD and BD discs. Use cases for creating ecc data, recovering defective=20 media using ecc data and for general maintenanance of optical media are=20 given. See https://dvdisaster.jcea.es/ for additional resources on the=20 dvdisaster project, e.g. for the blue manual (codecs.pdf) containing a=20 formal specification of the error correction data format.

    Copyright 2008-2017 Carsten Gn=C3=B6rlich.
    Copyright 2019-2021 The dvdisaster development team.
    Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in=20
    any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

    [. . .]

    Q 2.4: What happened to the Windows and Mac OS ports?
    As you may have noticed, the project has progressed very slowly in the=20
    last years. The main developer is currently very short of time, and some=20 co-developers are also busy with other tasks. So the question was either=20
    to stop development at all, or to continue developing using as few=20
    resources as possible.
    The main problem is that we have just one version of dvdisaster which=20
    needs to live up to the different standards of GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac=
    =20
    OS. The path of least resistance is to continue developing dvdisaster for=
    =20
    GNU/Linux, since dvdisaster was originally started on GNU/Linux and is=20
    still primarily developed on it. dvdisaster is a =E2=80=9Cnative=E2=80=9D G= NU/Linux=20
    application, meaning that it only uses tools and interfaces which come=20 bundled with GNU/Linux, such as the GNU compiler suite and the GTK+=20 graphical user interface toolkit.
    Producing the Windows version requires a huge effort, as dvdisaster can=20
    not be built with native Windows tools like Visual C++. It requires=20 installing an Unix-like development environment containing the GNU=20
    compiler suite (e.g. from MingW) and a port of the GTK+ toolkit. These=20
    tools need to be obtained directly from the upstream source (e.g. from=20 www.gtk.org), as no responsible developer would use pre-made binaries from=
    =20
    third-party sites. That guarantees for huge extra work every time the tool=
    =20
    chain needs to be updated.
    When the project was started in the year 2004, the Windows 2000 port of=20
    GTK+ provided a sufficient compatibility layer to make a decent looking=20
    and usable Windows version. Today, since Windows 8 the operating system=20
    has diverged so significantly from GNU/Linux that it makes GTK+ based=20 applications look poor in terms of usage and visual appearance. Also,=20 Windows is taking different ways in dealing with 64-bitness and=20 multithreading over several CPU cores. This makes it very difficult to=20
    write an implementation of the RS03 codec which works well on both=20
    GNU/Linux and Windows. To create a version which lives up to the current=20 standards of both GNU/Linux and Windows, dvdisaster would have to be=20
    written from scratch with native bindings to the Windows GUI and process=20 interfaces. The same is true for Mac OS; necessitating another complete=20 rewrite of the source code. Resources for that are not available, so the=20 project will just continue developing the GNU/Linux version.
    Please note that this does not make your error correction data immediately=
    =20
    worthless under Windows, as you can continue using the current 0.72.3=20
    binary for a long time. Also, ecc data created under Windows can be used=20
    to recover media using GNU/Linux, even when booting Linux as a live system=
    =20
    from a memory stick."
    says
    HTTPS://dvdisaster.JCea.Es/downloads/manual.pdf --708268602-638691372-1765025553=:2937087--
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2