Comments on: Gadgets, widgets, buttons, windows and libraries

by: Anonymous

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Its interesting to note that on all game projects that I’ve worked on so far the UI programmer always tries to invent some ultimate generic UI system. But later on each UI screen needs some customization so in the end the number of ‘generic’ features of the UI system is usually almost the same as the humber of custom features =)

by: ragin' lion

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Which one do you think is actually better? I have been thinking about (re)learning MFC; I haven't used it in years and have forgotten most those annoying little details.

There was some news a few months ago about TrollTech releasing an OpenSource version Qt for Windows. I used Qt a little in the past, it wasn't too bad. Probably among the best of all the multi-platform GUI libraries available.

by: Davide Pasca

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Personally I prefer to use CreateWindow() to build windows, buttons, etc. With some light wrapping on my side.
I never used MFC, and I I looked at wxWidgets and FLTK too briefly.
As usual, I don’t like to bet my life on anything. If something gets too complex, then it’s a problem or will be a problem 8)

The multi-platform thing, it’s more a feature than anything. It means that it will make it simple to port a certain application one day on some other platforms. But generally, most applications that are started aren’t finished not even on one platform.

Also one has to ask himself what’s the real goal. Most of the time, most of the menues & buttons are probably needed for small apps, tests etc.. where form has little impact..

When form becomes important, that’s where customization starts to come in.. and that’s what Mr.Rince was (anonimously 8P) talking about !

by: ragin' lion

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

“Multi-platform” in this case means “learn once, use anywhere”. There was a time I did some programming under OS X, it was a serious pain using Carbon. I know Apple suggests using Cocoa, and the like, but I really didn’t want to deal with writing things in ObjectiveC.

Most of the time I find myself wanting to get real work done rather than having to learn a new API simply because the APIs one already knows don’t exist on a different platform.

Thank goodness PS3 is using OpenGL! 8P