Kevin Ring wrote in a message to All:

 KR> My questions are: Is there anything like MFC for OS/2?

Borland makes OWL, which comes in a Windows version with their Windows
compiler and in an OS/2 version with their OS/2 compiler.  There are now
version differences, and the long term future of OWL for OS/2 is doubtful.

IBM is introducing OpenClass, which is an application framework for OS/2
and Windows 32-bit, but which does not support Windows 16-bit.  It is very
new, but seems powerful at first glance.

There are several cross-platform third-party user interface libraries,
including XVT, zApp, and Galaxy.  These are expensive, costing many
hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

There is a freeware product issued under the auspices of the University of
South Carolina known as Yet Another Class Library (YACL).  It provides a
user interface framework for Windows, OS/2 and X/Windows.

 KR> Will anything I'm learning now be transferable to OS/2 
 KR> programming?

Probably not.  MFC is a disaster, even for Windows.  MFC doesn't even
provide correct portability between Windows 16-bit and Windows 32-bit. 
Borland's OWL goes quite far to make sure you get that kind of portability,
even emulating Windows 95 common controls on Windows 3.1 if necessary.

 KR> Will DAPI convert my MFC programs to OS/2 native apps?

Since MFC makes Windows apps, and DAPIE assists in migrating Windows apps
to OS/2, you would probably find DAPIE to be of some value.

 KR> I *have* to write Win95 apps, but it would be really great if 
 KR> learning Win95 programming now would make OS/2 programming 
 KR> later much easier.  I would hate to be putting so much effort 
 KR> into skills that are stuck in such a pathetic OS. 

My advice is to look at MFC as throwaway effort, worth only what you are
being paid to use it.  It is not an especially friendly tool, it tends to
be incompatible with itself from one version to the next, and has a number
of features which simply do not work.  You will also find that many
otherwise simple tasks require you to use the Windows API directly, since
MFC is a rather thing wrapper around the native Windows API.
 
-- Mike


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