Java > Scala -> new thread: GUI for D

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Russel Winder" <russel at russel.org.uk> wrote in message 
news:mailman.1300.1322991626.24802.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
On Sat, 2011-12-03 at 13:16 -0500, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>[...]
>
>A few thoughts based mainly from Python use perspective.
>
>> #1: wx: Because it uses native controls on pretty much all platforms.
>
>wxWidgets appears to have the need in the C++ API for the programmer to
>number each widget individually in order to access it, and the parameter
>passing gets messy.  The wxPython API get around a lot of this by being
>able to do lots of dynamic binding and parameter passing tricks.
>wxWidgets and wxPython have licences amenable to being used for
>proprietary software without cost.

I hven't looked at the wxWidgets API, I would think that could easily be 
hidden by a good wrapper even without any fancy tricks (maybe wxD already 
does that? I don't know. I haven't gotten around to trying any GUI in D 
yet). I'm thinking basic bindings in deimos, and then paper over the rough 
spots in a separate package that wraps it with a revamped API.

>> #2: qt: Because for a non-native UI, it at least does a good job of 
>> getting
>> the look & feel right. And I've heard that the API is nice.
>
>Qt4 and PySide appear to have good cross-platform capabilities, but
>clearly look like Qt applications on all platforms.

I'm not doubting you, but it's strange that I of all people (ie, Mr. 
Native-or-Die ;) ) haven't noticed. My copy of Arora on Windows (v0.11.0) 
looks indistinguishable from native to me, and it reports using Qt 4.7.1. Do 
you have specific examples of differences?

Hmm, well, I admit the scroll bars in Arora fail to use my system color 
theme, but I always assumed that was just Arora trying to emulate IE's 
questionable "web-page-specified scroll bar colors" feature, with an 
incorrect default setting. The scroll bars in the "Show All Bookmarks" 
window look right.

>PyQt has an unfriendly licence for anyone wishing to
>make proprietary systems.

I didn't know that. Do you know if that's specific to PyQt, or inhereted 
from Qt?

>[...]
>> #84,259,254: gtk: Because it doesn't give a rat's ass about native 
>> anything,
>> plus it's just plain ugly (read: big-n-chunky) on all platforms, even 
>> Gnome.
>
>GTKmm is not that bad.  PyGTK makes it very much nicer.  On Gnome GTK
>stuff looks fine.  Doesn't port well to OS X and Windows though, which
>is why most people plump for Qt.

What I meant about Gnome is just that, IMO, everthing on Gnome looks all 
big-n-chunky with way too much padding. YMMV.