Re: SEUL: gui toolkits

[Kai Wetzel <k.wetzel@welfen-netz.com>]

Paul Anderson wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 7 Aug 1997, Kai Wetzel wrote:
> 
> >
> > As for now, I'd suggest to stick to one of the existing solutions,
> > such as Perl/Tk, or possibly the Gtk, but be ready for a
> > transission to one of the newer object oriented toolkits,
> > such as the LIP frameworks, the Xclass library, or a
> > Java or Objective-C solution - especially for larger applications.
> >
> Why not use V?  It's GPLed, and it's written in C++.

Well, it's even LGPLed, and it has support for multiple
window systems.  It's also fairly easy to learn and
good as a beginners' C++ GUI toolkit for writing small
applications.

There are, however, good reasons why it is not a good
toolkit for general application programming, at least not
as a long term solution:

- It is build on top of a modified Xt/3d-Athena, not directly
  on top of Xlib (like Qt, LIP, xclass) or even the X protocol.
- It's class design is not very sophisticated, partly due
  to the fact that it's a compromize between Win, Mac and Xt.
- It has some other limitations so it can be learned very
  quickly which makes it a pretty good chioce for classroom
  use, though.

I'm not saying you couldn't build a Solitaire game or Tetris,
a PPP-"dialog" or even a control panel with it.  I just suggest
not to use V as a long-term strategic option.

There are some commercial C++ frameworks which show what's
possible, e.g. Taligent's CommonPoint, OpenStep, or even Qt.
Even though the Java AWT was hacked together in a couple of
weeks, it ain't _too_ bad, and the recently added classes in
the JDK 1.1 are pretty promising (with some pitfalls, though).

We can expect major innovations in the Free Software C++ GUI
toolkit arena from the xlass team as well as from the LIP, so
I would strongly suggest to stay tuned and treat anything else
as a temporary solution.  (Besides the possible Java and ObjC
solutions which will hopefully become available, eventually,
of course)

[...]
kai

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