On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 16:50:30 -0500, Donald E Haselwood
<dhaselwood@verizon.net> wrote:
> For doing small (home/hobby type) gui base projects, which language would you
> recommend? I've been looking at Qt, GTK, and Java, and each one gets touted
> as the best.
>
> I've struggled through the learning with WN98SE, C++, wilth MFC (and it's
> miserable documentation). Getting over to Linux is now the goal. I would
> like to avoid the situation of investing the time and effort in learning only
> to discover that I picked one that was on its way out, a dog, obsolete, etc.
>
I'd recommend perl/tk (or ruby/tk).
If you want really easy, I'd look into Gorm and Gnustep.
It's completely point and click.
For any real applications that you want to run on both linux and the other OS,
I'd use perl/tk:
http://search.cpan.org/~ni-s/Tk-804.027/
You basically have six choices for graphics toolkits,
each is somewhat tied to a specific language. Interestingly, all but
one of them can be used from perl... Here's the list, as far as I
know:
Tk -- Can be used from just about any scripting language. Works on
Unix and
Windows, but looks (IMO) like crap on Unix.
Gtk -- C, can be used in C++, Perl, Ruby, Guile (Sheme), Ocaml.
Works in Linux and Windows. Looks like crap on windows.
Qt -- C++, can be used in perl. Not sure where else
Works on linux and windows, looks however you want it to
look anywhere.
As of 3.x, you need to pay for a license to compile it on windows.
4.x will change this.
WxWidgets -- C++, evil API from hell.
Works anywhere, looks native whereever it runs.
Even looks proper on Mac OS X I hear.
Java/Swing -- Works in, well, Java. Being java, it's slow.
Gnustep-ui -- Objective C.
Works on places where GNUstep works, which is
to say linux,
BSDs, and Mac OS X. Programming with gnustep
is wonderful.
You basically have to learn objective C to use
it, but it's very nice.
It's pretty much "try and see what you like".
The most popular are Gtk and Qt. So if you're using C, use Gtk.
If you're using C++, use Qt. If you're using a scripting language, use
Tk or Gtk (Qt's perl bindings suck because Qt is ultra-static...).
If you like insane APIs from hell or need lots of portability and
don't want to wait for Qt 4, use WxWidgets. You might not finish
writing your application, but you'll have fun spending the time
contemplating your socks as they haul you away to the funny farm.
As an aside, WxWidgets is very similiar to the MFC. I'm not sure if
this is on purpose or not.
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