Flutterby™! : Is there a modern widget set that

Next unread comment / Catchup all unread comments User Account Info | Logout | XML/Pilot/etc versions | Long version (with comments) | Weblog archives | Site Map | | Browse Topics

Is there a modern widget set that

2023-04-03 18:30:02.913335+02 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Is there a modern widget set that doesn't suck? AppKit is... ugh (and not cross-platform). Qt is sucking down 4% of the CPU for updating a second-hand on a clock because invalidating the view is causing a layout. Web is just super high resource load. Gtk went all web-ish...

[ related topics: Graphic Design ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Is there a modern widget set that made: 2023-04-03 22:59:59.053395+02 by: battjt

I'm using fltk... No. It isn't modern, but in rust it can be statically linked, cross platform and simple.

#Comment Re: Is there a modern widget set that made: 2023-04-04 19:31:34.396518+02 by: brainopener [edit history]

I know this isn't what you mean... especially if cross platform includes mobile. And I expect some initial revulsion...

But...

I've been decently happy using Java AWT. It's still actively developed and supported by the "real" Java team. There's oodles if widgets for it if that's what you need (like calendars, table grids, etc...). Also, oodles of libraries for everything else.

I've found that if you stick with the native "Java" look, then you get really consistent support on Windows, Mac, and Linux. And if you need some platform specific UI stuff (like putting an icon on the Mac in the corner status bar), it's doable.

There's some nice game graphics stuff for 2D and 3D (including OpenGL and Vulkan).

Modern Java has picked up some interesting features including some much nicer shared-object/DLL interop, garbage collection that's gotten really fast, and some syntactic sugar to tighten up the code. There's some fiber/green-thread stuff that's making a splash there now if you care about that stuff ("millions of threads" that kind of thing).

The licensing is pretty clear and amenable now too. Bundling OpenJDK with an app is straightfoward. Of course if you are an enterprise and can't have that, then Oracle will gladly give you a version stamped with their nameplate and cash your check.

For reference apps, all of the JetBrains IDEs use AWT (IntelliJ, PyCharm, CLion) and of course Minecraft is still a thing.

I know... I know... Java... people hate it. But for a large sector of apps including local GUI apps, it's compelling.

Add your own comment:

(If anyone ever actually uses Webmention/indie-action to post here, please email me)




Format with:

(You should probably use "Text" mode: URLs will be mostly recognized and linked, _underscore quoted_ text is looked up in a glossary, _underscore quoted_ (http://xyz.pdq) becomes a link, without the link in the parenthesis it becomes a <cite> tag. All <cite>ed text will point to the Flutterby knowledge base. Two enters (ie: a blank line) gets you a new paragraph, special treatment for paragraphs that are manually indented or start with "#" (as in "#include" or "#!/usr/bin/perl"), "/* " or ">" (as in a quoted message) or look like lists, or within a paragraph you can use a number of HTML tags:

p, img, br, hr, a, sub, sup, tt, i, b, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, cite, em, strong, code, samp, kbd, pre, blockquote, address, ol, dl, ul, dt, dd, li, dir, menu, table, tr, td, th

Comment policy

We will not edit your comments. However, we may delete your comments, or cause them to be hidden behind another link, if we feel they detract from the conversation. Commercial plugs are fine, if they are relevant to the conversation, and if you don't try to pretend to be a consumer. Annoying endorsements will be deleted if you're lucky, if you're not a whole bunch of people smarter and more articulate than you will ridicule you, and we will leave such ridicule in place.

Flutterby™ is a trademark claimed by

Dan Lyke
for the web publications at www.flutterby.com and www.flutterby.net.