[Ilugc] GUI Programming

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "SR" == Sridhar R writes:

    SR> On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 11:31:48 +0530, Prabhu Ramachandran
    SR> <prabhu_r at users.sf.net> wrote:
    >> [...]
    SR> written in C++).  WxWidgets is known to be buggy.  GTK+ apps
    >>
    >> I'm sorry but I think you are being a little too biased here.
    >> Each toolkit has its warts.  wxWidgets is certainly very well
    >> used.  I'd hardly call it "known to be buggy".

    SR> I have used WxWindows (former name) extensively before I
    SR> switched to Gtk+.  So I am not at all biased.  It is not only
    SR> me calling it buggy btw.  I am not sure about the recent
    SR> version of it--it might have improved now. (but do take note
    SR> that not all wx apps use all feature of wx)

The problem with your comments are that they are totally
unsubstantiated, so I can't respond about anything in specific.  I
have no idea what you mean by "extensive", no idea of what you mean by
"buggy", no idea what version of wxWindows/wxWidgets you are talking
of.  

I've used wxPython to do fairly non-trivial things, like write a
cross-platform electromagnetics visualization package using wxPython.
This was circa 2001 -- which is quite a long while ago.  I also happen
to know how poor GTK+/gtkmm was way back in 1998.  At that time there
was no choice between KDE/Gnome -- it had to be KDE.  GTK+ has had a
huge face-lift since version-2.0.  However, it is still not the choice
for completely cross platform GUI development.  That does not warrant
a statement to the effect that "GTK+ is known to be buggy"!  :)

Right now GTK has matured vastly and the widgets are really nice.
PyGTK has almost always been extremely well maintained and developed.
I'll also agree that GTK it is the one toolkit that probably has the
largest Linux mindshare (along with Qt) and probably has the most
number of supported languages.  However, if someone wants to deploy an
application across platforms (read: if significant fraction of your
users use win32) then I'm not sure GTK+ is even today a good choice.
Qt is a pain because of its license but from what I've heard its an
awesome framework to work with.  The big deal about wxWidgets is that
applications written with it look "native" on each platform, for some
folks this is very important.

The choice of toolkit also depends on your personal programming
preferences.  If you really like all the typecasts in C, and hate C++
you'd definitely pick GTK+ over Qt or wxWidgets.  OTOH, if you like
C++ its unlikely you'll enjoy GTK+.  I don't know how gtkmm has
matured to comment on how good it is today.  Some people prefer FLTK
to all the other alternatives.

As with anything, you need to know what you need and pick the right
set of tools.  Blanket statements of the "bugginess" of toolkits are
IMNSHO meaningless.  There are horror stories on either side of the
fence. 

So in summary, all the mentioned toolkits are usable.  Each has its
strengths and weaknesses.  Do your research, find out what you need
and use the suitable tool.  Unfortunately, there isn't one tool that
does "everything" today.

cheers,
prabhu