Re:Xforms Toolkit
by MaxBarraclough on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @07:25PM
(#26323173)
I was reminded of the lesser-known FOX Toolkit for X11 and Windows: http://fox-toolkit.org/
Curiously the second time I've mentioned it on HN today.
> I also feel that GUI toolkits should try to have dynamic layouts, so layouts can be adjusted without the need for re-compiling and re-linking.
Isn't that literally every desktop UI toolkit since 1982 ?
Re:Xforms Toolkit
by forgotmypw17 on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @04:32AM
(#26326352)
Some have resizing and scaling for free (e.g. AWT, most HTML renderers) while others do not (e.g. VB, as much as I love it)
I believe fltk was originally intended to mimic the API and widgets of xforms.
https://www.fltk.org/articles.php?L363:
> FLTK was originally designed to be compatible with the Forms Library written for SGI machines. In that library all the functions and structures started with "fl_". This naming was extended to all new methods and widgets in the C++ library, and this prefix was taken as the name of the library. It is almost impossible to search for "FL" on the Internet, due to the fact that it is also the abbreviation for Florida. After much debating and searching for a new name for the toolkit, which was already in use by several people, Bill came up with "FLTK", and even a bogus excuse that it stands for "The Fast Light Tool Kit".
I think it still has the astounding multitude of bevels and frames that XForms has. Just like you could spot Tk apps by the bisque color, you could spot XForms by programmers putting all the frames into one single dialog window.
I'd be interested to know what do you find rough about XRC (as wx XML layout system is known)?
I also feel that GUI toolkits should try to have dynamic layouts, so layouts can be adjusted without the need for re-compiling and re-linking. Though I understand historically, for the desire of a single file executable.
wxWidgets has XML layouts, a bit rough, though: https://docs.wxwidgets.org/3.0/overview_xrc.html