Beyond planmaker?

hgilbert · Post by **hgilbert** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:34 pm

Is it just pure XLib?
or do you use some third-party widgets?

I've been wanting to learn to program for Linux for quite some time.
But its such a hard area to penetrate into.
Of course coming from the Window world I've been spoiled with easy IDE and drag-and-drop activeX controls.

before i plunge into a linux language or set of libraries to use.
I want to make sure i choose the best technology.

I like the idea of a light-weight and non-dependant enviroment such as yours -
which unlike motif - the end result looks very beautiful.

Post by **martin-k** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:43 pm

Yes, TextMaker and PlanMaker use pure Xlib calls. If you don't have a very good reason (cross-platform portability), DON'T go that route. It's immensely more work than using Qt or GTK or any other pre-made toolkit.

Have a look at KDevelop, read quite a few people are raving about it.

hgilbert · Post by **hgilbert** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:22 am

I guess I am a masochist when it comes to programming
I've tried reading J.Robert Brown's X Window Programming from Scratch
but because I've been busy with other things never got round trying the concepts out.
I'll try today.

Also today I was playing with QNX Momentics Development Suite
For a second I thought that is what you used!
the widgets are so very similar - and the suite provide
very light cross-platform output specially for PDAs.
I mean I would have used that - if I had to go PDA and cross-platform.

Xlib isn't portable
QT is more portable .. and it would be easier to develop Xlib in Linux than in Windows
which begs the question - why would Datamaker appear first in Windows
which uses win32 API (if not then MFC or ATL)

hmm there is some secret here I am not supposed to know

Post by **martin-k** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:49 am

No secrets... we develop code with our own toolkit, and this toolkit calls low-level functions in the respective operating system. We just need very basic function calls (paint a pixel here, a rect there, wait on mouse input etc.). But if you develop apps from scratch, you don't want that ultra-low level of system interfacing but something that gives you apps quickly.

Qt or GTK or wxWindows or FLTK all fit this bill much better than Xlib.

hgilbert · Post by **hgilbert** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:47 pm

I want your toolkit to play with

But yeah I know what you mean, reading programming X from scratch
most pages had code like:

static unsigned char arrow_bits[] = {
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, ... for another 12 lines or so

nightmare ! lol

SoftMaker.com

Beyond planmaker?

what do you use to code your applications?