I'm new at programming in Julia and I need to create a GUI.
I've been looking for information and I can't find anything useful. I tried to search information in the Julia official web page, but it seems to be down. I wonder if any of you guys knows where I can find information about it.
This is quite a generic question, but I'll try and layout the environment so that you can make an informed decision based on your needs. You might want to check out this article on 6 Julia Frameworks to Create Desktop GUI’s 🖥 and Web Apps.
If you are developing your code within an [Jupyter/IJulia] notebook, and need very simple interaction, such as a slider to change some input values, the Interact package is the easiest thing to get started with.
To develop full-fledged web UIs, take a look at Escher. Inspired by the Elm, it provides a functional library of UI components. Interactive web UIs are created in 100% Julia. There is no differentiation in code between the client and server sides. The framework handles all of that.
Another web framework worth looking at is Genie, which is based on the traditional MVC design pattern. It also includes an ORM.
Stipple is a reactive UI library for building interactive data applications in pure Julia. It uses Genie.jl (on the server-side) and Vue.js (on the client).
Dash ties modern UI elements like dropdowns, sliders, and graphs directly to your analytical Julia code.
All the above solutions are for creating web user interfaces, accessed via a browser. If you want to create cross-platform desktop apps, but want to work with web technologies (i.e. HTML/CSS/Javascript), use Blink. This is a Julia wrapper around the Electron. You could potentially write a Dash or Stipple application, and wrap it in Blink.jl to create a desktop app.
To create desktop UI applications using the Gtk library, use the Gtk.jl package in Julia. If you are familiar with the Gtk API, it is easy to get started. Note however that there are some significant known issues running GTK.jl on Windows.
If your UI framework of choice is QT, a Julia binding is available via QML.jl
If you are happy painting the buffer yourself and just want a window to render the pixels on the screen, then there is nothing simpler than MiniFB. Note however that this does not give you a widget library -- you are responsible for drawing each and every pixel yourself.
ClmGui.jl is a Julia wrapper around the immediate mode GUI toolkit known as Dear ImGui
And last, but not the least, the venerable Tk framework has a wrapper in Julia. The UI's created using TK are sometimes considered ugly compared with modern aesthetics, but sometimes this is the quickest way to get a window up.
[Edited Jan 2022]
QML.jl
https://github.com/barche/QML.jl
The QML.jl package enables using the QML markup language from the Qt library to build graphical user interfaces for Julia programs. The package follows the recommended Qt practices and promotes separation between the GUI code and application logic. All user-facing code is pure Julia and QML, no C++ knowledge is required to use the package.
There is a new package called Genie. It is a web framework comparable with Django in python. You can create web ui using Genie. Until now (Aug. 2017), the package is functional with some nice demos, the documentation is not quite complete though.
Related
So far I have only been developing desktop applications using C++ or C#.
Now I am considering building a local standalone application using a browser GUI. The application would be similar to something I could e.g. build with C#. It should have local database access and offer some limited image editing (line drawing, polygon filling) and user defined, clickable graphical elements (basically polygons the user draws).
The application should not be web or server based. The application will also not be very complex.
The main thought behind this is to have the GUI be OS independent and as platform independent as possible.
Is that feasible? Or should I go about something as Swing, SWT or Java FX (which I have just read about)?
What programming language should I use for the application (Java, Python, ...)?
Are there toolkits for a programming language you recommend that offer an abstraction layer from OS specific stuff like file system handling?
Are there toolkits or tools that would help me in creating the browser GUI?
Well you can use c++ for this :) and for your GUI use OpenGL, and then you can use glut... You can take a look at OpenGL superbible book, it mostly about 3D drawing, but there is also something about gui... and it comes with examples for linux, windows, mac... basicly it is OS independent...
I'd like to develop a desktop app with Ruby. However, I'd like to have a native GUI on every platform (as opposed to a cross-platform GUI Toolkit that looks consistently awful across all platforms).
I expect to have to do different GUIs for each platform (as it's not just looks but also behaviors and idioms that are different), but I wonder what my options are? Especially wondering if there is a clean way to separate front and backend and bind the data properly?
Target Platforms are Windows (Vista & 7, XP is a Bonus), Mac OS X (Cocoa) and Linux (GTK? Qt? No idea).
The Ruby language has excellent Qt library bindings and your scripts will be cross-platform.
Two Kinds of Cross-Platform
It turns out there are two kinds of cross-platform UI toolkits.
One kind draws its own controls, and, like you said, looks equally bad on all platforms. Even worse: it looks out-of-place on all except one.
But there is another kind that just provides a harmonized interface to the native widgets. The best of example of this kind of toolkit is SWT1.. It looks, it is, approximately fully native on each platform, yet it has but a single API.
So you shouldn't simply rule-out all cross-platform toolkits, just rule out the ones that fake the native UI.
Develop the Wrapper Interface
There is a second way. If your program's interface with the user can be directed through a relatively narrow interface, you can simply develop to that interface and then implement the bottom part of it for each platform you want to support. Yes, you have to rewrite one module, but all the other modules stay exactly the same and you get native widgets. You also get the smallest possible executable without lots of bloat.
Perhaps most importantly, you don't have a complex and opaque software layer between your code and the native windowing system. You will probably save as much time debugging as you spend writing the extra module for your first port.
1. I know my Java examples won't help you much unless you are using jRuby, but SWT vs Swing is a really pure example of the right-vs-wrong (IMHO) UI toolkit divide.
The WxWidgets interface claims to use the native interface on Windows, OS X, Linux and UNIX through one API.
Coworkers who have used it in the past enjoyed it well enough, but I've not used it myself.
I was just thinking. C# has Winforms/WPF, Java has Swing and other frameworks, C++ has QT and so on; is it possible to create an application without using a Framework?
Putting aside the practicality of it, I'm just curious. How would one create an application that Just Works(tm) without needing external frameworks?
Two options come to mind:
Classical Win32 applications written in C. I don't know if standard Windows SDK API also counts as an "external framework" in your book, but that's as low as it gets.
DirectX/OpenGL games written from scratch with your own homebrew framework (not external, right?) There you get to do all the drawing yourself - although again, you use a pretty big library of primitive drawing functions.
If you want even less "framework", you'll have to code your own OS and drivers. :P
C# needs .NET Framework, not WinForms (which is an optional library used by some application). The same with Java.
Unmanaged (native) applications usually use some runtime library - the library of common functions. You can write a native application without any library - the compiler lets you do this, but you will need to (re)write lots of common functions, eg. for string manipulation etc..
Firstly, what is a framework?
Really a framework is just a bunch of code that is provided to you. You could, at least in theory, write the same code yourself. In that case you wouldn't be using a framework.
Your application can only do what the operating system allows it to do. Your program cannot directly manipulate the graphics card for example. So you have to use the APIs of your operating system in order to do anything.
So you are going to be calling into other code. (unless you write your own operating system). You will also being using another framework or api to get stuff done.
Yes. How: in the way that the frameworks you mentioned are implemented.
From a Windows point of view, you would register your window with Windows, then listen to window messages and react as required. Everything would be up to you - from drawing the window to building controls.
We are planning to develop an application for monitoring and configuring our service (which is running on remote server). After long time of discussion, we decided for python as platform for our app, because we love and know python. But we don't know, what GUI toolkit preferred for our aims. We need fast (for development and running) app, whose users will be Admins, Maintainers and Account managers.
There are two GUI toolkit for python, which we know: wxPython and pyQT.
Anybody have arguments regarding pro and cons? And maybe someone knows any commercial applications, using these products (only python version of toolkits)? Links are desirable.
Thanks.
I choose wxPython after much research. The reasons were:
"wxPython in Action" book by Rappin & Dunn
The voluminous examples that come as part of the wxPython download
The number of projects that have used wxWidgets
The fact that wxPython code runs equally well on Linux, Mac OS/X and Win32
I did consider pyQT and other researchers are successfully using it. After writing many examples in all API's that I considered, I found wxPython ticked the most boxes for me.
As for Tkinter (TIX), I think it looks rather dated.
Unless you are using IronPython or Jython I would not consider using the associated native windowing APIs. For another project which is to be delivered exclusively on .Net, I plan to use WinForms after lots of great feedback from StackOverflow members.
Well, I am a fan of QT: it has a more modern look and feel. However - your choice should be based on your actual requirements. Simple trade studies are helpful for this. Make a list of what features your toolkit must have and what features would be nice to have and then weight each item appropriately. Then look at all your options (TKinter also) and then score them according to your feature list (using the weights you assigned to each feature requirement). At the end it should be evident which one is right for your project.
I've always liked Qt's "signals and slots" conceptual model, though I guess it may take a bit of learning for developers who are more used to other models of event propagation and handling. Personally, given a choice, I'd pick PyQt because of this programming aspect.
You wrote "There is two GUI toolkit for python, which we know: wxPython and pyQT." You are forgetting about the most obvious toolkit: tkinter. That's actually part of a core python distribution, no extra downloads required.
Some people don't like Tk but that's often due to ignorance. Tk is a fine choice for a cross platform toolkit. It uses native widgets on windows (and has for many years) and the latest versions of tk use themed widgets on all platforms.
i've been using wxpython for 3 years .. and now we had to switch into pyqt since qt is integrated in maya 2011 .. however , wxpython is more straight forward and you can easily start working on it and learn it from zero fast .it provides and awesome resources and decumentation . but QT provides more powerful features that you cant find in wxpython , for example ( the multi touch detection) , QT also provides good support for drawing devices like pc tablets and so on .
qt also provides a good designer that makes u create interfaces faster.
one of qt disadvantages is it's license since it's not free like wxpython
A Windows (and Mono) option for a GUI toolkit is provided by IronPython. It provides access to the Winforms and WPF libraries. For examples, see Developing with IronPython & Windows Forms, and many others.
If you want to expand the list of options, consider building a Web App instead of a (local) GUI app. You say your service runs on a remote server, so networking is part of your requirements.
Once you start down that road, Python provides a bewildering amount of options.
I want to point out two strengths that wxPython has compared to pyQt:
It uses native widgets on every supported platform. So the apps have a native look and feel. I'm aware that PyQt uses native styles, but the behavior ("the feel") is reported to be somewhat non-native especially on the Mac.
It provides a wider choice of widgets out of the box.
You should also check out PyGTK. It is similar to pyQT in programming model but does not have any licensing cost since it is LGPL. I always found it nice to work with as a developer. The main drawback over pyQT is that in some cases they take away functionality in things like file chooser dialogs in favour of simplicity for the user.
What's the difference between toolkits and frameworks? Do you know a good comparison?
If I had to make a distinction, then I'd say a toolkit provides specific tools to do specific jobs, whereas a framework provides you with a foundation on which to build further, higher-level structures.
Tools are useful on their own, frameworks have no innate function.
jQuery, prototype, Yahoo! User Interface, MooTools, dojo, and ExtJS will have you working with very solid code.
Other posibilities that I can't vouch for myself: QooxDoo
I believe he's looking for a comparison of the javascript libraries/toolkits(whatever they happen to call themselves).
The names say it all really, a toolkit is a set of tools that you can use however you wish. A framework is an empty frame that you can fill in to form your application. The line between them is blurry though a framework contains tools, and a toolkit sometimes forces you to perform actions in a specific sequence.
I wouldn't know of a generic comparison, i guess it depends on the toolkits and frameworks themselves.
Not Specific to AJAX though. But a have a read..
What is the difference between a framework and a library?
A toolkit provides the basic, minimum building blocks for building something. A framework already has an approach laid for your. A framework defines the application architecture for you (most of the times), where a toolkit only gives you the tools, so you define your own architecture.
For example, GWT(Google Web Tookit) is a toolkit; it does not impose a certain way of doing things, the Java JDK is also a toolkit (Java Developer's Kit), but Rails (from Ruby on Rails) is a framework. It encourages the use of their worflow and classes (MVC, share-nothing, etc).
A toolkit is like a library. You pull it into your application and you use it. A framework provides a structure to your application, so all of your code goes inside of it. The strength of a framework is that by following it's conventions and staying inside of its process it is capable of doing a lot of heavy lifting for you. A toolkit is more flexible, but there are many types of problems that are better solved by a framework. With Ajax, it is a little harder to define. For example, simple widgets and dom manipulation can be done in a toolkit style, but if all of your javascript uses special event wrappers and framework based class functionality and inheritence, all of your code becomes dependent on that framework and is really contained inside of it.