T
TGOS
How do C programmers create a good-looking Windows GUI?
Using a cross-platform API would be cool, but gtk+ is out of question,
as it does not look really native on Windows (there is a "skin" that
makes it pretty native, but that it's like using Java Swing: Looks close
to native, but not really native and doesn't "feel" native to the user).
Using the Win32 API directly is *painful*.
wxWidgets is cool, but it's only C++. Qt is also very native from the
feeling, but also only C++.
Further it would be great if I don't have to "program" the GUI. In the
age of GUI editors, creating a GUI programatically will almost always
lead to a sub-optimal result. 90% of all GUIs in MacOS X are created
with the Interface Builder, a drag'n drop GUI editor (the easiest I
know) and the results are gigantic.
MS Visual C++ has such an editor, but it creates MFC Code, this is C++
again.
Regarding the choice of programming language: I like OO languages, I
really do. But I think C++ sucks, so does Smalltalk and C# (out of
question anyway, cause user must have .NET Framework installed, that is
not even part of WinXP unless you download the 21 MB and install it).
What I like is Java (out of question, JRE is equal to .NET Framework,
again not installed by default and a big download) and Obective-C
(almost only used for MacOS X. GCC can compile it, but GUI design
outside of MacOS is ugly, as the GUI looks worse than Motif).
For most tasks OO is overkill and C cuts it quice nicely. However what
if you need a GUI? Isn't there a programmer friendly API for creating
native Windows in plain C, that is nicer than the Win32 API, that is
free and maybe portable (whereby this is not really a demand)?
Any ideas?
Using a cross-platform API would be cool, but gtk+ is out of question,
as it does not look really native on Windows (there is a "skin" that
makes it pretty native, but that it's like using Java Swing: Looks close
to native, but not really native and doesn't "feel" native to the user).
Using the Win32 API directly is *painful*.
wxWidgets is cool, but it's only C++. Qt is also very native from the
feeling, but also only C++.
Further it would be great if I don't have to "program" the GUI. In the
age of GUI editors, creating a GUI programatically will almost always
lead to a sub-optimal result. 90% of all GUIs in MacOS X are created
with the Interface Builder, a drag'n drop GUI editor (the easiest I
know) and the results are gigantic.
MS Visual C++ has such an editor, but it creates MFC Code, this is C++
again.
Regarding the choice of programming language: I like OO languages, I
really do. But I think C++ sucks, so does Smalltalk and C# (out of
question anyway, cause user must have .NET Framework installed, that is
not even part of WinXP unless you download the 21 MB and install it).
What I like is Java (out of question, JRE is equal to .NET Framework,
again not installed by default and a big download) and Obective-C
(almost only used for MacOS X. GCC can compile it, but GUI design
outside of MacOS is ugly, as the GUI looks worse than Motif).
For most tasks OO is overkill and C cuts it quice nicely. However what
if you need a GUI? Isn't there a programmer friendly API for creating
native Windows in plain C, that is nicer than the Win32 API, that is
free and maybe portable (whereby this is not really a demand)?
Any ideas?