Choosing a GUI Toolkit for the Interreality S5 User Interface Application
We need to decide on what GUI toolkit to use for the S5 UserInterface (IRUI). Here are some possabilities.
All possible toolkits must support the following (and all of the below do, to one extent or another, except as noted):
- Fully support Linux, Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OSX.
- Have standard GUI toolkit features: windows, buttons, radio and check controls, menus, tree control, key handlers, some kind of logical layout scheme
- Are C or C++ libraries
- Have support for using a window or panel for Open GL 3D rendering
Contents
Comparison
If you have any corrections or can fill in any missing data ("unk"), please do so.
|
wxWidgets 2.8 |
Qt 4 |
FLTK 2.x |
GTK |
FOX |
Blender |
Language |
C++ |
C++ w/ MOC extensions |
C++ |
C (C++ w/ GTKmm) |
C++ |
C |
License |
LGPL |
Triple GPL/Qt/Commercial |
GPL |
LGPL |
LGPL |
GPL? |
Activity |
Very active |
Very Active |
OK |
Very active |
unk |
Good |
Community |
Very active and helpful |
Some, commercially supported |
OK |
Good |
unk |
OK |
Documentation |
Good |
Good |
OK |
Good |
unk |
None at all |
familiarity/popularity |
Good |
Good |
Some |
Good |
No |
None at all |
OpenGL win. |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
w/ GtkGlExt addon (but not well maintained??) |
Yes |
Yes (all windows!) |
Automatically drag splitter dividers (resize panels) |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
unk |
Yes |
Automatically drag splitter panels around to different configurations |
No |
unk |
No |
No |
unk |
Yes? |
Data table widget |
add on? |
Yes (add-on?) |
unk |
No |
unk |
Yes |
Full screen mode |
|
unk |
unk |
unk |
unk |
Yes |
System tray support |
Yes? |
Yes |
No |
Yes (only for Linux/GNOME?) |
None AFAIK |
No |
Toolbar in any panel/subwindow |
No |
unk |
unk |
Yes? |
unk |
Yes |
TB automatically user customizable |
No |
yes? |
unk |
No |
unk |
No, except order maybe? |
TB drag around to different edges |
No |
unk |
unk |
No |
unk |
Yes? |
TB detachable to a floating window |
No |
yes |
unk |
No |
unk |
No |
vertical accordian widget |
No |
unk addon? |
No |
No |
unk |
No (but subpanels can be minimized) |
text editor widget |
Add on |
unk addon? |
Yes, quality unk |
No |
None AFAIK |
Yes, though not great |
embedded web browser widget |
very basic |
Yes, I think |
No |
No |
None AFAIK |
No |
2D drawing tools (advanced/basic) |
Typical |
maybe a bit more than typical |
Typical |
Advanced, w/ Cairo |
Typical? |
advanced? |
Scripting support |
python, perl, full api |
ECMAScript, own implementation |
No |
Python, Perl, Ruby, Swiggable |
Python, Ruby, Eiffel |
not for the UI (in general)? |
Undo framework |
unk |
Add on (nonfree?) |
unk |
No |
No |
Maybe |
Joysticks and other input devices |
Joystick |
Drawing tablet; no joystick? |
No |
No |
No |
pen tablets? some 3D mice now or in the future? |
Language/Translation support built in |
Yes, if unicode mode is on |
Yes |
No? |
use seperate tool for translations |
No? |
Unk. No? |
Look and feel matches native OS |
Yes |
Close, not exact. Can seem a little bit off or clunky (subjective) |
No, looks clunky (unless improved in 2.x) |
No, except on Linux/Gnome (but themable) |
unk |
No, but looks good on all |
Visual design tool |
wxDesigner (not free) |
Qt Designer (not free) |
FLUID (free) |
GLADE, but hard to integrate GLADE and non-GLADE code? |
No |
No |
Bloat |
Some |
Some, but Qt4 is in seperate libs |
Not much |
Not much, except for the many utils in glib |
a bit |
N/A |
|
wxWidgets 2.8 |
Qt 4 |
FLTK 2.x |
GTK |
FOX |
Blender |
Notes
wxWidgets 2.8
Note, 2.8 is still in development, but 2.6 has all of these features
Bloat: includes various other cross platform abstractions we wouldn't use (networking, databases, etc.) and it is a layer on top of native toolkit.
Also includes own X11-direct implementation (incomplete?), WinCE (still maintained?), Win 9x.
Includes some Windows OLE features, native data structures (windows) are accessible.
Was used in S4 and in the prototype IRUI. Interreality developers are familiar with it.
Qt 4
Interreality developers are somewhat familiar with it
Look and feel is close to platform, not exact. Can seem a little bit off or clunky (subjective)
Bloat includes many other cross platform abstractions we wouldn't use (networking, databases, etc.), various general non GUI features (data structures, XML, ...), many classes, though in Qt 4 some of these features are in seperate libraries from the GUI and core stuff. MOC code generation can create somewhat bloated code.
Must use qmake which sucks.
FLTK 2.x
Note, 2.x is still in development (beta?)
May not have a splitter panel widget, would need to implement'
GTK+
OSX implementation (non-XWindows) is still in development. A bit slow on Windows. Visually it's not native at all on Windows and OSX (so far), it looks pretty good though, and there are themes that might get it looking close.
Some Cellphone support (OpenMoko, a few Nokias), XO (OLPC) Laptop, Maemo, various Unixes
FOX
Note, may run on OSX with X-Windows server, no native port. RUns on BSDs, IRIX, AIX, Sun, HP-UX, Win95, Win98.
Blender
Note, the blender devs are redoing the internal UI framework for Blender 2.5. This work hasn't been done yet. But even then, the UI code won't be a seperate library or be supported for use outside of Blender at all.
Good keyboard navigation. A few nifty features: every part of the GUI is zoomable, for example.
Votes and comments
put your votes and comments here