[GRASS5] Platform for next generation UI

[Glynn Clements]

Trevor Wiens wrote:

> > > 3. Other toolkits. This is the most daring choice and the one most
> > > likely to fail to deliver anything, but offers the chance of getting
> > > the ideal. In this camp, probably vanilla Qt is the best choice (IMHO)
> > > as it is going to be around for a long time and is mature. GTK and wx
> > > seem like fine tools, but the cross platform issues with GTK rule it
> > > out
> > 
> > What cross-platform issues? I have never had any problems with the
> > Windows port of Gtk.
> > 
> > Personally, I find that C++ libraries take more effort to learn, and
> > result in code which is harder to understand if you aren't "fluent"
> > with the library in question.
> 
> I agree with you about sometimes C++ libraries being difficult. In
> fact, I don't like C++ and have more experience with C, Object Pascal
> (Delphi) and Python. The tools for GUI construction with Qt were much
> nicer than what was available for either wx or GTK when I looked
> into it about a year ago. 
> 
> My concern with cross-platform issues related to GTK was about Mac OS X
> as explained by Michael earlier. 

Ok, so you're referring to the need to use X11 for GTK apps rather
than having a "native" implementation?

Personally, I would consider requiring X11 on OSX to be a reasonable
trade-off, given that there is a standard, stable implementation
available. I don't consider the extra work required to provide a
native version to be justified, given that the Unix/X11 version ought
to run just fine on OSX.

I wouldn't be particularly bothered about requiring X11 on Windows if
it was going to save on development effort, but the Windows port of
GTK would make that unnecessary. Most of the work involved in a native
(non-Cygwin) Windows version would relate to the use of core Unix
functionality (i.e. the I/O API).

It needs to be borne in mind that GRASS doesn't exactly have an glut
of developers, so we need to get the most out of those which we have.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>