Re: Good Looking UI for a stand alone application

On 12/18/06, Luc Heinrich <luc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> You're full of it. I routinely write GUI apps in Dabo for both Windows
> and Linux users, and they look just fine on both platforms.

Oh, I'm sure you do. Now go try to run one of your Dabo apps on a Mac
and see how it looks/feels... :>

I don't have a Mac, although I would certainly like one. But one of
the two authors of Dabo is a Mac user, and says that he does all his
development on a Mac, and then tests it on the other platforms. Look
at the screencasts on the Dabo site - most of them are recorded on OS
X.

Here's a hint directly taken from the Dabo homepage: "It also suffers
from the same display limitations on some platforms (most notably OS X),
but these should improve as the underlying toolkits improve."

OK, it's true: you don't have 100% access to the lickable Aqua stuff
that a Cocoa app might be able to use. But paged controls use native
Aqua tabs; progress bars are native Aqua bars, buttons are native Aqua
buttons... Perfect? Of course not. But stating that it sucks is a load
of crap.

> Using sizers is the key; layouts just 'look right' no matter what the native
> fonts and control sizes are.

No, sizers are a tiny part of a much bigger problem. Sizers might be the
key to solve parts of the "look" problem, they don't address any of the
"feel" problem.

Huh? Based on what I've seen on the screencasts, the apps look better
on the Mac than they do on XP. How should I judge how they "feel"?
SIzers automatically take care of font metric differences and native
control size differences.

But you clearly have a point here, so let me rephrase: "Crossplatform
toolkits/frameworks suck. All of them. No exception. UNLESS you only
target the lowest common denominator, aka Windows and its Linux
followers".

Now, the OP *explicitely* said that "[his] requirement is that the
application needs to look as good on Windows as on the Apple Mac", so
the rephrasing does not apply in this case. So here's a last try:

Well, I don't think *anything* looks as good on Windows as it does on
a Mac, whether it is from a platform-specific toolkit such as Winforms
or a cross-platform toolkit like wxPython. If you want it to look as
good on Windows, you'll have to use VNC or something like that.

"Crossplatform toolkits/frameworks suck. All of them. No exception.
ESPECIALLY if one of your target is Mac OS".

Such self-important pronouncements would be better received if you
brought them down the mountain on stone tablets.
--

# p.d.
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