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

Subject: Re: [boost] Thoughts for a GUI (Primitives) Library
From: Klaim (mjklaim_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-09-01 19:31:40

We had a long discussion on the french community developpez.com recently
about exactly this subject.
Most of the participants were fighting over the fact that Qt is well enough
and that working with high level C++ for GUI is  not currently necessary.

In the discussion some thought were put in a library concept (that was
started after the discussion but I'm not sure about it's current state) and
I remember proposing some kind of design, something similar to what we see
in recent boost libraries(boost::log, boost::msm) : having the lib being a
meta-library with customizable front-end and back-end.
I don't think it's possible to build a GUI framework that is general enough
for any kind of use. But I think it's possible to provide a way to plug a
input-specific-strategy and an output-specific-strategy in some kind of
meta-library providing ways to define controls behaviour in a general way,
with possibility to use input-strategy-implementation-specific interface if
required and output-strategy-implementation specific interface f required
too.

I'm not sure I'm clear enough (and it's late)... anyway I never implemented
something like that so I might be talking about unessessary magic.

That said, I and others put a lot of thought in some kind of implementation
but I personally don't have time for such an epic task at the moment (I wish
I had).
The main problem I see is not about technique but about the domain's
knowledge, because I see that a lot of us mere programmers don't know much
about abstract of graphic communication.

For french-speakers, the discussion can be read there :  (the server is
down, i'll post it later)

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 00:46, Edward Diener <eldiener_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> 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.
>
>
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