[lazarus] GTK or XLib or Whatever

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Mon, 28 Jun 1999, Sergio Kessler wrote:

> sorry to re-introduce this to the mailing list
> 
> Sebastian Günther wrote:
> > I'm personally quite bored of this discussion. Do you really think it's
> > _that_ difficult to write a re-targetable component library, i.e. a CL
> > which supports whatever you want to?
> 
> *NO*
> and this is what I've been saying in previous emails, check the 
> mailing list archive if you want (one with the subject 'multiplatform ?')
> 
> But I've heard many people here to say:
> 
> "we must work on gtk because it's multiplatform"
> 
> and this is wrong, /wrong/, *wrong*
> 
> YOU must deal with the multiplatform issue, not expect that the
> toolkit resolve it for you.

Using GTK at least insures that the same code recompiles on 2 platforms:
linux and Win32

> 
> and this can be done somewhat easily, in fact I've done it in
> my house, but stopped for lack of time.
> 
> I've done something like:
> 
> fcl/
>    gui/
>       /inc    -> interfaces and multiplatform code
>       /gtk
>       /gnome
>       /win32
>       /qt
>       /kde
>       /be
>       /motif
>       /<include your platform here>
> 
> if someone want the code for this, just tell me.
> (I don't know if it compile with 0.99.12, and is pretty basic)
> But I guess the people of KCL (FCL, MCL, LCL .. this is driving me 
> crazy) have done a similar approach.

They have.

> 
> > > >  Megido, Lazarus, and KCL.
> > > >2 of them seem to be stranded in the discussion 'which widget set to use'.
> > > >I don't want to see a third one get caught also.
> > >

[cut]

> 
> I was talking about the /gtk/ code (not pascal) vs. the gnome code
> needed to implement a showMessage() routine (60 lines vs. 3 lines)
> 
> and in the /long run/, when you have to do DB access, Corba access,
> media (audio, video, etc) access, desktop access, etc
> HOW do you do it with Gtk-only approach ? (or Qt-only ?)
> 
> In the long run, you will =need= Gnome or KDE, no matter what you
> think, no matter if you like it or not.

Nobody denies this. But for the BASIC functionality we currently
need, GTK is more than enough. Add to that the alledged multi-platform
issue, and there you have our reasons for sticking to GTK *at the moment*

> So _I_ think that going with the full toolkit from the begining
> will simplify things.

No-one denies that. But you loose
1) The cross-platform issue
2) The KDE users.

For me personally, these are enough reasons to stick to GTK. But everyone
is entitled to his own opinion; everyone can say 'I can do better', and
implement something else (though not necessarily better).

Michael.