Any issues with C in Sugar and XO?

[Chris Ball]

Hi,

   > Hey, I am wondering if there are some major issues or technical
   > problems that doesn't make Sugar compatible with C. For example,
   > if a program is written in C, are there going to be at least some
   > complications with running it?

No.  Several activities are currently written in C, although most
(e.g. Browse and Abiword) have a small Python wrapper sitting on top
of the C code.

   > Can we run the program after installing gcc, but I don't think
   > gcc would be easy to install in it, will it?

You do not need to install gcc to run a C program.  gcc's just a
compiler, not a runtime library.

   > So, one more question, please - What are the consequences and
   > effects on performance of a C program as compared to a Python
   > program?

The largest consequence is that you lose access to our python
libraries for the datastore and collaboration, which affects how
integrated your activity will be with the rest of Sugar.  You can
work-around this by speaking the dbus protocols that we use from C
directly, but this is by no means trivial.

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <cjb at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child