git.saurik.com Git - wxWidgets.git/blame_incremental

Commit	Line	Data
	1	$Id$
	2	<br>
	3	<H1>Proposal for a port of wxWindows to Qt - wxQt</H1>
	4	<p>
	5	Following the recent discussions
	6	and flamewars about KDE vs Gnome, we got worried that we'll see a
	7	repetition of the same damaging infighting from which Unix has
	8	suffered before. Competition is a good thing, but the current
	9	situation leaves application developers with a difficult decision to
	10	make: Write for KDE, using qt/harmony or write for Gnome, using GTK?
	11	Whatever happens to these projects, we will end up with a lot of
	12	duplicated efforts and a mix of applications written for either of the
	13	two environments. The result will not be the consistent look and feel
	14	that both projects aim for.
	15	<p>
	16
	17	The people on the wxWindows developers team thought that we might have
	18	a solution for this problem, if we can get some outside help to get it
	19	done. Let us explain: wxWindows is a cross-platform development
	20	toolkit, a library of C++ classes which provide GUI concepts as well
	21	as other cross-platform issues such as container classes, debug
	22	features or configuration management. It has been around since 1992
	23	and started by supporting Motif, XView and MS-Windows, with a direct
	24	X11/Xt port added later. Last year, a major rewrite was started and we
	25	now have a much advanced library, available for MS Windows, with a
	26	Motif port under construction. Later last year, Robert Roebling set
	27	out on a one-man project to build wxGTK, a gtk-based implementation of
	28	wxWindows which in less than a year has become sufficiently stable to
	29	use it as the main development platform of rather large
	30	applications. The wxWindows license is a variant of the LGPL,
	31	which should meet no objections from the free software community. In
	32	fact, this has been an open source project long before the term became
	33	commonly used.
	34	<p>
	35
	36	Our idea is, that if this is good enough to work across different
	37	operating systems (a MacOS port is under construction, too), it could
	38	easily bridge the gap between KDE and Gnome. The quick evolution of
	39	wxGTK has shown that a new port based on an existing widget set or
	40	toolkit can easily be created by a small team within a few
	41	months. Therefore, we would like to start a project for a Qt/Harmony
	42	based wxWindow library, wxQt. It would then be possible for
	43	application developers to write the same source and compile it either
	44	for KDE, Gnome or even any of the other supported systems.
	45	<p>
	46
	47	But for this we need help. The core developers are all pretty busy on
	48	the existing ports, but we could provide significant help and support
	49	for any such effort. A wxQt port could also recycle lots of existing
	50	code from the other ports.
	51
	52	Please, join us in this effort and, if you feel that you could
	53	contribute, join the wxWindows developers mailing list for further
	54	discussions. Just send a mail containing "<tt>subscribe</tt>" to
	55	<tt>wxwin-developers-request@wx.dent.med.uni-muenchen.de</tt>
	56	<p>
	57	You can find some more information about wxWindows at the following places:
	58	<ul>
	59	<li>The <a href="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/">wxWindows homepage</a>.
	60	<li>The <a href="http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt/">wxGTK homepage</a>
	61	<li>The <a
	62	href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/wxWindows/wxQt.html">wxQt
	63	proposal</a>(this text)
	64	<li>The <a href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M/">home of <em>M</em></a>, an email client developed using wxGTK, showing several <a href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M/screenshots/">screenshots</a> of how it actually looks like.
	65	</ul>
	66	<p>
	67	<hr>
	68	Karsten Ballueder <tt><a
	69	href="mailto:Ballueder@usa.net">Ballueder@usa.net</a> <a
	70	href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/">http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/</a></tt>

1

$Id$

2

<br>

3

<H1>Proposal for a port of wxWindows to Qt - wxQt</H1>

4

<p>

5

Following the recent discussions

6

and flamewars about KDE vs Gnome, we got worried that we'll see a

7

repetition of the same damaging infighting from which Unix has

8

suffered before. Competition is a good thing, but the current

9

situation leaves application developers with a difficult decision to

10

make: Write for KDE, using qt/harmony or write for Gnome, using GTK?

11

Whatever happens to these projects, we will end up with a lot of

12

duplicated efforts and a mix of applications written for either of the

13

two environments. The result will not be the consistent look and feel

14

that both projects aim for.

15

<p>

16

17

The people on the wxWindows developers team thought that we might have

18

a solution for this problem, if we can get some outside help to get it

19

done. Let us explain: wxWindows is a cross-platform development

20

toolkit, a library of C++ classes which provide GUI concepts as well

21

as other cross-platform issues such as container classes, debug

22

features or configuration management. It has been around since 1992

23

and started by supporting Motif, XView and MS-Windows, with a direct

24

X11/Xt port added later. Last year, a major rewrite was started and we

25

now have a much advanced library, available for MS Windows, with a

26

Motif port under construction. Later last year, Robert Roebling set

27

out on a one-man project to build wxGTK, a gtk-based implementation of

28

wxWindows which in less than a year has become sufficiently stable to

29

use it as the main development platform of rather large

30

applications. The wxWindows license is a variant of the LGPL,

31

which should meet no objections from the free software community. In

32

fact, this has been an open source project long before the term became

commonly used.

<p>

Our idea is, that if this is good enough to work across different

37

operating systems (a MacOS port is under construction, too), it could

38

easily bridge the gap between KDE and Gnome. The quick evolution of

39

wxGTK has shown that a new port based on an existing widget set or

40

toolkit can easily be created by a small team within a few

41

months. Therefore, we would like to start a project for a Qt/Harmony

42

based wxWindow library, wxQt. It would then be possible for

43

application developers to write the same source and compile it either

44

for KDE, Gnome or even any of the other supported systems.

45

<p>

46

47

But for this we need help. The core developers are all pretty busy on

48

the existing ports, but we could provide significant help and support

49

for any such effort. A wxQt port could also recycle lots of existing

50

code from the other ports.

51

52

Please, join us in this effort and, if you feel that you could

53

contribute, join the wxWindows developers mailing list for further

54

discussions. Just send a mail containing "<tt>subscribe</tt>" to

55

<tt>wxwin-developers-request@wx.dent.med.uni-muenchen.de</tt>

56

<p>

57

You can find some more information about wxWindows at the following places:

58

<ul>

59

<li>The <a href="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/">wxWindows homepage</a>.

60

<li>The <a href="http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~wxxt/">wxGTK homepage</a>

61

<li>The <a

62

href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/wxWindows/wxQt.html">wxQt

63

proposal</a>(this text)

64

<li>The <a href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M/">home of <em>M</em></a>, an email client developed using wxGTK, showing several <a href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/M/screenshots/">screenshots</a> of how it actually looks like.

</ul>

<p>

<hr>

Karsten Ballueder <tt><a

69

href="mailto:Ballueder@usa.net">Ballueder@usa.net</a> <a

70

href="http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/">http://Ballueder.home.ml.org/</a></tt>