Previously, I’ve coded some GUIs with GTK+, but GTK+ is a no-go because of the recent events of breaking changes and other things that many application developers simply didn’t agree with. The choice is then between Qt and WxWidgets. Both are C++. So I’ll go with WxWidgets since it’s lighter, right? Well, wait, not so fast. People are disliking WxWidgets too for introducing breaking changes like GTK+. Okay, so there only is one choice, and that is Qt.
And since my software was supposed to be like PCManFM… now that makes it even easier, now that PCManFM is also on Qt.
If you want GTK+ or WxWidgets for a light weight GUI toolkit, keep it to the old versions.
Thinking about building a new light weight GUI toolkit that can be ubiquitous? Follow in the footsteps of Qt. Thankfully, this also does mean that you can use low-level Macintosh Toolbox or Windows API style primitives upon which the higher level is built. You could even use X11, for those who care.
If you really read into how old Trolltech operated internally, they really put a lot of ephasis on API compatibility.
Now X11 is good too… but then there’s Wayland display server. So, let’s be really firm on this one. When everyone in the graphics and GUI world didn’t care about API compatibility, they (Qt) were the last holdout. And yet, this is making them wildly popular among application developers. Turns out, application developers nowadays don’t want to experiment with new stuff and breaking changes.
So, about Qt? Yeah, they’re engineering style really isn’t like West Coast, it’s more like Minnesota engineering. Where are they, again? Oh yeah, right, Finland. Well, I reckon their engineering culture must share a lot of similarities with Minesota engineering, they’re about the same population and surface area as Minnesota, but further North.
Trolltech => The Qt Company
20190718/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Qt_Company
20190718/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WxWidgets#cite_note-36
20190718/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7993240
Well, at least there’s a bright side to all of this. When the tech world was previously indecisive about converging on a single GUI API as a standard, the arbitrary foolishness of the other parties really helped narrow down the choices and guide the industry as a whole to unanimous agreement on a single standard.