FileZilla as a general FTP library

Message

quark · #1 Post by **quark** » 2004-09-18 16:21

Hi, I've used FileZilla as my favourite FTP application for quite a while, and admire its amazing functionality.

As I'm a programmer myself, I often run into situation where I need FTP support. And then I always find myself wanting to use FileZilla as a base FTP component in my system, because it supports just about everything I need.

My problem is that I program in C#.NET, and thus can't use the FileZilla source code directly, even though it's open source. Even if it was possible to use it directly, I wouldn't know where to start when looking at the source code, since I can't even get it to compile in VS.NET (I try to compile it as C++, of course).

Would it be possible to wrap the FileZilla code in C# using P/Invoke so we would get the best free .NET FTP library in existance?

I would be very interested in collaborating in this work, as I've got a lot of C# and .NET experience. I have no C or C++ experience, though, so I need help to make it all glued together.

#2 Post by **botg** » 2004-09-18 17:35

It will be possible to compile the engine behind FZ3 as library for use in wxWidgets applications.
C# I won't ever touch, it's made by the devil.

quark · #3 Post by **quark** » 2004-09-18 18:36

Disregard your personal opinions of C#, don't you think it would be great to be able to use FZ in as many environments as possible? C# and .NET happens to be a wildly popular development framework, and I think FZ would be a great addition to the existing available codebase on the platform.

Good to hear that FZ3 will have this capabilities, if I understand you correctly, that is. Will the library be available as a COM DLL or something?

Fenix*NBK* · #4 Post by Fenix*NBK* » 2004-09-19 03:16

quark:
I think, You don't understand correctly. OpenSource movement don't really like MS- COM technoligies.

But you're free to use FZ' source code, to write your libs.

> C# and .NET happens to be a wildly popular development

While It might be wildly popular in MS sponsored colleges/jobs, but remain unpopular withing the Linux/OpenSource community for very long time.

Just like Visual Basic is very popular within the Windows community, but very few OpenSource developers using it.

botg:
>C# I won't ever touch, it's made by the devil.

Yea, but there are not-so-devil implementations of it, like Mono and DotGNU. What do you think ?
Possibly it can be called from there as C++ libs.

quark · #5 Post by **quark** » 2004-09-19 09:50

Does FileZilla run on anything but Windows? If not, how can the maintainers and coders of FileZilla hate windows? That sounds like a wierd relationship to me, at least: You hate Windows, but develop one of the best FTP clients in existance for that operating system. I'm guessing most of you use Microsoft's development tool Visual C++ as well. Could you explain this to me?

And C# and .NET is something different than older Microsoft frameworks, especially in regard to open source. Just have a look at codeproject and other projects on sourceforge. There are loads of open source movements on .NET, and Mono plus DotGnu is a brilliant example of just that.

If you want to be more Windows and Microsoft independant, maybe developing FileZilla 4.0 on the GTK# gui platform is a good idea. Then it will run on everything from Mac OSX to FreeBSD to Linux to Windows, and it will be extremely simple to program against it from other .NET languages. Just an idea.

#6 Post by **eddan** » 2004-09-19 09:55

FileZilla 3 is in development - read the FZ3 development diary - and will be using the wxWidgets library, which will make it available for all those platforms you mentioned.

quark · #7 Post by **quark** » 2004-09-19 10:05

Okay. I've never heard of wxWidgets before. How does it look and feel on Windows? Does it render almost as a native Windows GUI, or is it very noticable that it isn't native, like e.g. GTK+ and Java SWING is?

No matter what GUI framework FileZilla is developed against, it would still be very nice to have an all-purpose FTP library which was possible to use as a component in .NET solutions.

#8 Post by **eddan** » 2004-09-19 10:15

quark wrote:Okay. I've never heard of wxWidgets before. How does it look and feel on Windows? Does it render almost as a native Windows GUI, or is it very noticable that it isn't native, like e.g. GTK+ and Java SWING is?

wxWidgets uses the native Windows widgets - it's just a wrapper around them - thus making it look like any other windows app. For more info have a look at http://www.wxwidgets.org

Superracingteam · #9 Post by **Superracingteam** » 2004-09-19 10:17

on windows XP, wxwidgets is using the old windows 95/98/2000/NT look.

quark · #10 Post by **quark** » 2004-09-19 10:31

Okay, it looks good. If you would ever change your minds in regards to the C# and .NET wrapping of FZ, please let me know.

#11 Post by **botg** » 2004-09-19 13:56

on windows XP, wxwidgets is using the old windows 95/98/2000/NT look.

Only if you don't add a manifest file to the application. That's the same for every windows program: No manifest no xp look. It's easy to add an manifest though.

Fenix*NBK* · #12 Post by Fenix*NBK* » 2004-09-19 18:22

wxWidgets app are almost native Windows apps.
(*almost because when you change theme color, Win apps change colors, while wxWidget apps don't)

They also look native on Mac OS X and Linux.

Anyways, as a good example of what wxWidgets can do please check the Audacity project's screenshots. (Google for Audacity)

about C#:
Look, you might start C# coding, if you wish, and see how the community reacts.
I like C#, and possibly you'll find followers too.
Call it "FileZilla#"

Filezilla currently (v2.x) is Windows app, but v3.x will be cross-platform. It's now rewritten from scratch.

...And if you want for a full demostaration of the power OpenSource can do on Windows, look no further than TheOpenCD project !
http://www.theopencd.org <-- Very recommeneded for Win users, who wanna try OpenSource.

#13 Post by **botg** » 2004-09-19 19:17

wxWidgets app are almost native Windows apps.
(*almost because when you change theme color, Win apps change colors, while wxWidget apps don't)

Not true. I did change my system colours to something really ridiculous, started FZ3 and it looked as bad as the rest of the system.

eyebex · #14 Post by **eyebex** » 2004-09-19 19:26

botg wrote:It will be possible to compile the engine behind FZ3 as library for use in wxWidgets applications.

Does this mean we need to link against wxWidgets if we're just interested in FZ3's FTP engine? Even for a non-GUI tool?

Anyways, I don't get what all this fuzz is about ... there're plenty good, free and small FTP libraries around, see e.g. http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/competitors.html

Fenix*NBK* · #15 Post by Fenix*NBK* » 2004-09-20 09:58

Yes true.

Try running MS Paint and FZ3 or Audacity.
While run, change theme color.
MS Paint and FZ2 will change color instantly, while FZ3 and Audacity will require application restart.

Also, there are other minor issues with wxWidgets on the WindowsXP platform...