[ale] Alternatives to Qt - thoughts and opinions

[Benjamin Scherrey]

	I find it interesting that you hear about wxWindows in a negative context. It really is quite 
a strong framework/api. It came out long before Qt existed and is ported to as many platforms. The 
only negatives about wxWindows are that they don't use templates and they want you to use their 
string class rather than std::string (the latter may no longer be a limitation). These came from the fact 
that, at wxWindows inception, the STL and standard library was not available nor did many 
compilers handle templates very well - although I argued at the time that for all the supported 
platforms, there was at least one strong enough compiler to do the job. Other than that, I think that 
Qt has a bit better event model but it requires a pre-processor step which wxWindows does not. 
Also, Qt really wants you to use their QString class so there's no Qt advantage over wxWindows in 
this regard.

	I am a fan of both libraries and don't find any others to be competitive. I have developed 
in multiple environments under both, and even have purchased commercial licences for Qt. Both 
have excellent python wrappers, however, the PyQt wrapper has gone commercial (at least for 
Windows) and will not be available for Mac for some time (if ever). Frankly, I've been a bit 
disappointed with some of the things the developer has done and cannot justify sending him money 
on top of the Qt license - although I would pay for the wxPython library if they required it (which they 
don't). So I'm kinda in the same quandry as you because I'm about to embark on some 
development using C++ & python for multiple platforms. Presently I am leaning towards going with 
wxWindows but won't make the final decision until I have to. Beyond that - I guess I'm still a bit 
disappointed with the architectures of all the GUI class libs out there. They all seem to be 
unneccesarily complex in areas they shouldn't be and inflexible in areas they should be (if you catch 
my meaning and don't parse too logically). Doubtful I'll ever be satisfied alas...

	good luck,

		Ben Scherrey


11/8/2002 7:37:27 AM, "John Wells" <jb at sourceillustrated.com> wrote:

>Guys,
>
>Recently acquired a project to develop a C++ gui for both Windows and
>Linux.  I'd really like to use Qt for this, but the Enterprise license is
>out of the company's price range.
>
>Looking for suggestions for alternatives and your experiences/caveats. 
>I'm aware of wxWindows, but usually hear about it in a negative context. 
>Anyone on the list used it, and what did you like/not like?  Is it ready
>for production applications?
>
>What other cross-platform gui libraries exist?
>
>Thanks,
>
>John





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