Toolkit Selection

[Mark Russell Anderson]

>>>>> "Stan" == Stan Shebs <shebs@cygnus.com> writes:

    Stan> OK, so here are the goals and constraints.  I'm not
    Stan> particularly religious about toolkits, so will consider
    Stan> anything that meets the requirements.

    Stan> * My ideal is to have graphical versions of Xconq on
    Stan> Unix/X11, Mac, and Windows 95/NT.  I would accept interfaces
    Stan> for other platforms, but wouldn't put much personal effort
    Stan> into them.

I'm not very aware of _all_ the possibilities, but when I was checking
it out, it seemed like wxWindows is a good match here.

wxWindows has a Mac port. I believe they offer a common interface.

wxWindows:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/
wxMacintosh:
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jonto/wxmac/

There is also Qt, or Amulet.	

Qt: (everything but Mac)
http://www.troll.no/qtinfo.html

Amulet:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~amulet/

Others:
????

    Stan> * Xconq should have a uniform appearance on all platforms -
    Stan> maps should have the same images, colors, magnifications,
    Stan> etc.

    Stan> * The interaction machinery should have some common
    Stan> elements, such as keyboard commands, but other elements,
    Stan> such as menus or popups, may be different for each platform.
    Stan> These should be able to use as much common code as possible,
    Stan> however.

    Stan> * Any toolkits must either be available with the programming
    Stan> environment (MFC with VC++) or free software (tcl/tk).

wxWin, Amulet

    Stan> * A toolkit must support basic animation.

    Stan> * A toolkit must be either be optimizable, or allow access
    Stan> to the fundamental API (X11 under Xaw for instance), for
    Stan> speed-critical display code.

I don't know about this. 

    Stan> * A toolkit must be able to handle the display of very
    Stan> complex maps, such as earth-50km (200,000+ cells, 3,000+
    Stan> units).

    Stan> * A toolkit must allow for tuning of the details of
    Stan> interface elements so as to look "professional" for the
    Stan> platforms supported.

    Stan> * A toolkit must support the construction of interfaces that
    Stan> look "native" for each platform (tcl 8 not tcl 7).

At least wxWin and Amulet do this, the native part, that is.

    Stan> * I'm generally happy with the existing Mac interface, and
    Stan> generally unhappy with the existing X11 interface, and want
    Stan> to rewrite all its toolkit-level code (low-level drawing
    Stan> code is OK).


kraM A.
krama@ee.byu.edu                     http://www.et.byu.edu/~krama/
Mark Anderson
Reconfigurable Logic Lab: Brigham Young University