Re: [boost] Thoughts for a GUI (Primitives) Library

Subject: Re: [boost] Thoughts for a GUI (Primitives) Library
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-09-01 18:46:38

On 9/1/2010 3:38 PM, Ralf Globisch wrote:
>>>> Giorgio Zoppi  09/01/10 2:17 PM>>>
> I don't know if there's enough space for this. There are a plenty of
> GUIs Framework,
> like Qt or wxWindows, which are more advanced.

wxWindows is horrendous as a modern C++ GUI library. It uses C++ as it 
was used some 15 to 20 years ago and makes endless excuses about why its 
dialect of C++ must never be upgraded centered around support for 
hopelessly non-compliant C++ compilers.

Qt is a proprietary framework, also not using modern C++ but its own 
in-house ideas instead, which have long ago been superceded by modern 
C++ constructs such as in Boost libraries. Furthermore one can not 
create commercial applications with it without either releasing the 
source code or paying Trolltech, or whoever owns them now, some large 
amount of money. Neither solution is practical for Boost end-users.

There are also lots of other C++ GUI systems around, none of which I 
have ever found personally flexible enough.

Whoever would be capable of creating a modern C++ GUI system, as 
difficult as it would be to do, might find it worthwhile. However a 
number of others have pursued this goal in the past with appropriate 
Boost vault and Boost sandbox libraries, without getting very far in 
interesting other Boost users/developers in the practical usage of their 
systems, or encountering endless discussions and disagreements among 
programmers who want different things in their GUI library.

So I too think it is an extremely difficult task but not for the reason 
that there exists anything out there good enough or useful enough as an 
alternative.