Re: Please use wxWidgets

Arctic Fidelity wrote
(in article <op.s339k7olczmf80@frostbite>):

> Got a few problems with that. I have seen wxWidgets type programs on a
> Mac, and no, they don't work like a Mac program. Sure they superficially
> resemble what the Mac OS looks like, but often stuff just isn't right. I
> also find this to be the case on Windows, where things don't quite feel
> right. On the other hand, even if that were all fixed, as others have
> pointed out, it's C++. :-P Bleh. ;-)

This is the dirty little secret about cross-platform GUI
programs. They never feel right on any of them. Each window
manager has special hooks on a given platform to tie into other
features. Things that are written natively for the program
support the bells and whistles, the cross-platform stuff may
have the right shapes and icons on the corners of the windows,
but it doesn't work the same.

Still, there is something to be said for having the same program
on more than one OS, but you have to accept that it won't be the
same as a native app for "feel".

Just because the UI elements get converted under the covers to
the native equivalents, that doesn't make it behave the same,
not for wxWidgets, not for Qt, and not for the horrid, abysmal,
oh-my-it-is-bad Zinc toolkit that I was forced to use once upon
a time.

As an example of not feeling quite right, Firefox is available
(along with Thunderbird) on the Mac, but neither of them act the
same as most of the normal OS X apps. Quite a few people lean
towards either the native Safari, or Camino, basically very
similar to Firefox, but with a more Apple-like GUI. There are
several others as well. Thunderbird is pretty nice, I use it,
but it does have font rendering problems with proportional fonts
in email messages if you don't use exactly the set of fonts it
wants you to. Of course, many people would stick with plain
text in email, but even so, it is broken in that regard.

--
Randy Howard (2reply remove FOOBAR)
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism by those
who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
How 'bout them Horns?





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