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IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
31–40 of 42 posts
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#32I've been meaning to give Motif a try for cross-platform C GUIs. Can anyone share their perspective with that, and compare with IUP?
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
wxWidgets feels heavily inspired by Microsoft's MFC framework. That always felt clunky to me, compared to GUI toolkits like Qt and GTK.
This was indeed the case. In 1995. Since then just about everything has changed, but the idea that wxWidgets is MFC-like still refuses to die... Another common related opinion is that you have to use macros when using wxWidgets, which couldn't be further from truth since ~15 years (see https://wxwidgets.org/blog/2023/05/are-macros-required-to-us... ) but, again, old impressions linger.
I still find examples using the macros all over the place. It is unfortunate that is still the case...
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#34It appears to be a requirement that all C/C++ UI libraries have old, crusty looking visuals.
That's mostly due to them wrapping native widgets. They couldn't have known windows would effectively stop updating Win32 and reinvent the wheel like 5 times.
This sort of toolkit tends to look ok on macOS where that degree of insanity didn't happen.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#35This seems to be like the classic wxWidgets [1], i.e. it's an API that wraps the underlying platform's default toolkit. So on Windows it uses Windows' native controls, in Linux it seems to use GTK, and so on. That means that the advantage is being able to write against one API, and get cross-platform compatibility, which can be nice. It also means (typically) being limited in what you can do to the least common denom…
Thing is, each OS has its own design language and conventions. Trying to make one UI look and feel great in all of them is doomed to fail and feel awkward in all of them.
So either make a UI for each OS or go your own way and have your own design language.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#36It still has no support for OS-X. I can understand the reason. This library is made by Brazilian researchers working for an institute (very poorly) funded by the government. However, Apple machines are very, very expensive in Brazil and many other 3rd World countries, almost a luxury. Probably they're not affordable enough to many of those researchers. However, not having a OS-X version is really a big obstacle for t…
I know a young programmer in Brazil who is running Linux on a 2000's laptop simply because they cant afford anything better. At the time I was ignorant of their import taxes and said I had a spare motherboard/cpu/ram combo and a laptop I could send them and they politely refused my offer stating they would go broke paying the import taxes. Sad situation.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#37It still has no support for OS-X. I can understand the reason. This library is made by Brazilian researchers working for an institute (very poorly) funded by the government. However, Apple machines are very, very expensive in Brazil and many other 3rd World countries, almost a luxury. Probably they're not affordable enough to many of those researchers. However, not having a OS-X version is really a big obstacle for t…
Same problem in the USA with those Apple machines.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#38How does this compare to GTK in terms of features?
Maybe somebody can use it to make the state-ful GUI browser that the "office" industry sorely needs so we don't have to force DOM to act like a real GUI (which it does painfully and poorly). GUI's and mice do most the real work; let's not give all the standards attention to web toys and mobile.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#39It appears to be a requirement that all C/C++ UI libraries have old, crusty looking visuals.
"Old" isn't necessarily bad. If you want productivity over fashion, older styles are often better. They are more mouse-friendly and easier to understand, as buttons actually look like buttons instead of faded flat stickers.
Re: IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
wxWidgets feels heavily inspired by Microsoft's MFC framework. That always felt clunky to me, compared to GUI toolkits like Qt and GTK.
This was indeed the case. In 1995. Since then just about everything has changed, but the idea that wxWidgets is MFC-like still refuses to die... Another common related opinion is that you have to use macros when using wxWidgets, which couldn't be further from truth since ~15 years (see https://wxwidgets.org/blog/2023/05/are-macros-required-to-us... ) but, again, old impressions linger.
Macros aren't the only thing that make wxWidgets like MFC. Things like using new but not delete on objects. The method and event names. The use of DCs in paint events. Etc.