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Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by jonathanstrange on Friday January 18, 2019 @08:24AM (#18939099)
One suggestion for improvement: Like so many other web pages for fancy new frameworks and libraries, the github page does not really explain what Flutter is and what problems the Go library can solve.

Can I make a cross-platform GUI with it (a) in the current state, (b) maybe later? If so, what features does it support? How does it compare to Qt, Lazarus, Sciter, Elektron, etc? Does it have internal drag & drop? External drag & drop? Standard file and folder dialogs? Are widgets native or not (I suppose not, but it should be clear from a glance at the page)? Which widgets are supported? Does it have rich text support? Does it have OS-level clipboard support? Does it have transitions or not? Is it themeable? Is it fast? How large are executables built with it? Is it intended for ease of use or somewhat complicated? Do I need to write in other languages (HTML, markup, Javascript) to get things done or can everything be written directly in Go?

All of this is absolutely essential information. Nobody can reasonably decide whether to use this GUI toolkit or not without getting answers to all of the above question. So please, please explain in one sentence what Flutter is and make a section with keyword features.

[Please don't take this wrong, I'm not a naysayer. This is meant as a constructive criticism, not just of this page but of many similar ones. It sure looks like an interesting project.]

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by outworlder on Friday January 18, 2019 @10:11AM (#18939792)
I had the same issue.

"Go Flutter desktop embedder". Well, that's that? Click (https://github.com/flutter/flutter/wiki/Custom-Flutter-Engin...)

"The Flutter Engine is window toolkit agnostic. " What's flutter engine? Click (https://github.com/google/flutter-desktop-embedding)

"The purpose of this project is to support building applications that use Flutter " Ok, but what's Flutter? Click (https://github.com/flutter/flutter)

"Flutter is Google’s mobile app SDK for crafting high-quality native interfaces on iOS and Android in record time."

OOOOH. Ok.

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by true_religion on Friday January 18, 2019 @10:58AM (#18940146)
But what is Android and iOS? What is an SDK? There is only so deep the rabbit hole can go. They chose to stop the explanation at Flutter and I don't blame them. If you aren't already using Flutter, this won't help you as you now have to go learn a whole other library first.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by politician on Friday January 18, 2019 @02:10PM (#18941971)
"Flutter is a cross-platform UI toolkit that aims for pixel-perfect, native look and feel on each platform while minimizing code differences."

Does that help?

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by pkaye on Friday January 18, 2019 @02:24PM (#18942095)
Does it work similarly on desktop platforms?
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by politician on Friday January 18, 2019 @04:45PM (#18943416)
Not to my knowledge, I think right now it's just iOS and Android.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by mrkurt on Friday January 18, 2019 @10:56AM (#18940124)
It's safe to say that if you aren't already interested in Flutter, you probably don't need to pay much attention to this project.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by bobwaycott on Friday January 18, 2019 @12:20PM (#18940862)
Unless of course you don’t know that Flutter exists but are very much working in that problem space.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by coldtea on Friday January 18, 2019 @01:15PM (#18941366)
If you're working in that problem space, you should already have seen news about Flutter...
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by bobwaycott on Friday January 18, 2019 @03:33PM (#18942770)
One would think, but it isn't inherently unreasonable that someone wouldn't.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by mrkurt on Friday January 18, 2019 @03:41PM (#18942860)
It's definitely ok to not know what flutter is. It seems a little unreasonable to expect specialized projects to define everything from the ground up, though.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by bobwaycott on Friday January 18, 2019 @08:59PM (#18944811)
100% agree. Haven’t been trying to suggest otherwise. Firmly in the camp that mentioning Flutter is more than enough, and discovering what it is should be left as an exercise for the reader. This all started because I was mildly disputing that this was only of interest to someone already interested in Flutter itself, as opposed to the problem space.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by ausjke on Friday January 18, 2019 @09:50AM (#18939635)
Very constructive indeed. For cross-platform GUI I have investigated flutter(among others, flutter at the moment is really just mobile only, so does Kivy)

It appears to produce a commercial quality cross-platform GUI, with not-so-bad looking, your only choice is Qt, be it Pyside2 or Qt/C++. For me I decide to use Pyside2.

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by srikz on Friday January 18, 2019 @11:39AM (#18940493)
I ended up choosing Dear ImGui recently https://github.com/ocornut/imgui
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by Const-me on Friday January 18, 2019 @04:32PM (#18943314)
Depends on the complexity of the GUI you need and on other factors.

QT is OK if your GUI is very complex and you're targeting a desktop OS.

For simple GUI QT is just too big.

For GUIs without a desktop OS (mobile, embedded), QT is not a good fit either, not enough mobile support, and their embedded license can be prohibitively expensive.

I have positive experience building moderately complex commercial quality GUIs on top of this: https://github.com/memononen/nanovg

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by ausjke on Friday January 18, 2019 @04:54PM (#18943475)
Actually QT GUI is pretty popular in embedded space(if you're not using Android that is)

in my case I want to build a file manager and after some research I ended up with Pyside2

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by ausjke on Friday January 18, 2019 @09:55AM (#18939667)
Another way to do true cross-platform Desktop GUI will be leveraging browser on MacOS/Linux/Win, you put your core logic in GO which runs as a local http-server on your Desktop that talks to your OS underneath, and use browser/html/css/javascript to do the UI. You only need ship the GO binary, users install it and then starting to use your program via a browser.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by bobwaycott on Friday January 18, 2019 @12:21PM (#18940873)
That sounds nothing like “true cross-platform GUI” to me.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by solarkraft on Friday January 18, 2019 @02:46PM (#18942305)
> flutter at the moment is really just mobile only, so does Kivy

I can't parse that. I know for certain that kivy runs very well on desktop platforms.

Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by ausjke on Friday January 18, 2019 @04:53PM (#18943468)
not really, it's more like running an apps on Desktop, you only have one window for example
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by repolfx on Saturday January 19, 2019 @04:55AM (#18946221)
You could also look at JavaFX. It's very modern but also has the sorts of controls you may need for complex apps.
Re:A Go Custom Flutter Engine Embedder for Desktop by noninc on Friday January 18, 2019 @08:38AM (#18939171)
This is a very good point, I think.

I would say for every product that is in a well defined category (like GUI toolkit) there is a default set of FAQ that an intro for it should answer. Maybe it would be a good idea to create an issue with a template of those FAQ, so other projects can use them as well.