Things to do before GUI-developers can start their work

> > > shouldn't we split the user interface from the maxima-kernel and
> >
> > provide a
> >
> > > convenient interface for programs, allowing others to produce nice
> >
> > GUIs?
> >
> > That is the approach I favor.
> >
> > --Jim
>
> Problems with this - if we have the kernel and the GUI act as two
> separate running programs, communication between them becomes an issue.

This is not a problem we catch with this setup, this problem is already there! 
Look at texmacs.lisp or imaxima.lisp and you will easily see that there is no  	
adequate solution for this at the moment (which led me to my very first 
post).

>  I believe Mathematica invented a protocal specifically to deal with
> this issue.  Also, communication mechansims between processes are
> different on different platforms - on Linux it's pipes for example, but
> IIRC Windows cannot handle them, at least not in the same way. 

As long as I know, stdin, stout and stderr are C++ concepts not bound to any 
platform, however although nonfree QTs QProcess class is platform independent 
and gives easy access to stdin, stdout and stderr. Together with MathML input 
and output, probably enriched with Maximas very own XML-Elements, it would be 
truely platform independent.

Greetings,
	Michael