From: Jan Sabbe Date: 2004-08-09T09:04:17+09:00 Subject: Re: Free(real Free) GUI toolkits Lothar Scholz wrote: > Hello Rando, > > RC> Reinder Verlinde wrote: > >>>"it works pretty well", combined with "it runs under apple's X11" really >>>means that it is not a Mac application at all, and Mac users will in all >>>likelihood not find it a suitable solution. >>> >>>Reinder > > > RC> You're probably right; but then again, there aren't ANY toolkits that do > RC> any better than that for cross-platform with OSX. wxwidgets technically > RC> works on OSX, but it's kind of a pain. I got it to compile once, but > RC> then I couldn't get python's wxPython to work with it and gave up. (I > RC> was trying to get the bittorrent wxPython stuff working.) > > RC> Any others that exist (Including the local ruby favorite fox) only work > RC> under X11 anyway. > > RC> (I believe QT is actually an exception to this, and they now provide a > RC> fully native OSX Framework. Are there ruby bindings for QT?) > > The problem is different, it's not only an API question. > > You simply can't generate a cross-platform GUI intensive application. > Point. Thats it. Thats what you must accept. It is possible with > Windows <-> Linux just because the Linux toolkits look much like the > windows Styleguide and where born more or less as with windows in > mind. > FireFox and Thunderbird are pretty damn good. There are differences ofcourse to make it more mac-like. Shortcuts using symbols, based on command instead of control or alt. Changed menu structure (preferences and quit under the application menu, instead of file and edit). The usage of sheets instead of modal dialogs. Things could be better, but none would require a massive rewrite, or needs the use of another toolkit. So, yes, you need different versions for mac/linux/win to make a decent gui app, but the differences aren't that major that you need to rewrite your entire application. Allot of Java apps also integrate nicely. (for example Jedit). You need changes, you need to follow the mac hig to give a nice experience, but you don't need to rewrite it in either cocoa/carbon. It is easier to get things right if you use cocoa instead of something else, but it is not absolutely necessary for a nicely integrated mac application.