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Some articles point to Windows 8 development being HTML-based instead of primarily using native code like C or C++ (as it has been until now) or .NET (as now, or even more so as it would have been in Longhorn, but never was.)
Is this true? Will the core APIs be accessible from Javascript then? What is the primary API / framework for Windows 8?
This is worth asking. When Windows 8 was demonstrated in June, a couple of comments by the presenter scared quite a few developers - or at least turned the Internet into panic mode. I'm surprised this question hasn't been asked here before.
The best article on the topic I have found is Windows 8 for Software Developers on Ars Technica.
The short answer is: it will remain the same.
The long answer is: it will remain the same, but several things will be added. You may want to pursue using those if you're willing to bet on new Microsoft technologies. One particularly interesting one is WinRT, which is a new object-oriented native code API exposed through COM, which is supposed to be a new version of the old flat Win32 API. Details are in the linked article.
It is very, very, very, very unlikely that anything that already exists, especially based on Win32 or .Net, would be removed. That means your existing programs written in .Net or native C++ or Delphi will continue to work fine. It is also unlikely that the primary development platform will be HTML. More likely is that HTML applications will be encourage for specific scenarios - perhaps touchscreen, kiosks and tablets.
I'd encourage you to read the article I linked to above - it covers this in far more detail than any answer here can.
There are three ways to develop for Windows 8, and they all access the same underlying API, the Windows Runtime.
Use C++ and call WinRT functions much like calling Win32 APIs back in the day (you know, yesterday)
Use C# or VB and call what appear to be .NET methods (but aren't)
Use Javascript and call WinRT functions
The UI is built with XAML using a pretty reasonable designer. More details are still coming out: check http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011 for videos with detailed coding demos. http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/BPS-1005 is not a bad starting point.
There are 3 language/framework combinations that are all equally supported:
C++ and XAML
C#/VB and XAML
JavaScript and CSS/HTML
All are first class ways to write Windows 8 Metro style applications. Windows Runtime provides direct access to each of these languages and so choice of development environment can be based on familiarity or feature set of the language and not on restricted availability.
Update: I forgot one: C++/Direct3D (for games).
The original quote, in the context of writing a tablet desktop weather gadget application, is that the application uses "our new developer platform, which is, uhh, it's based on HTML5 and JavaScript."
The demonstrator never said a gadget is the preferred type for applications (How many Vista sidebar gadget or Windows 7 desktop gadget have you written in your life? Even when you can write them in simple HTML!), or the platform is the preferred platform for desktop weather gadget applications (How many animation control have you add to your application with video playing requirement? It is THE control used by Windows Explorer to display video!).
Today, after spending a few minutes playing with Windows 8 developer preview, I found that you can use Expression Blend 5 to easily auto-generate metro-styled applications in HTML and Javascript. Also in Visual Studio you can create exactly looking applications in Silverlight. :)
I am very excited!!! Go Windows 8! :)
I am working on a new small utility desktop application but I am not really able to choose the GUI framework to use. I have worked on both JAVA,C# and C++, so language is not really a constraint. My criteria are:-
A very well designed architecture, something like QT. It's better if it follows typical C++ design methodologies.
Layout management should be easy, intuitive and not really cumbersome. I hate adjusting pixels on screen.
Its license should be open.
It should look good :)
Mentioned QT seems to comply to all your requirements. QT has "deploy everywhere" attribute, whilst Java needs no deploying at all (it depends on what is use of your utility).
Ad. 2 QT has really convenient GUI designer.
Ad. 3 LGPL. Usually it is enough.
Ad. 4 It is always matter of taste. IMO QT4 looks awesome under linux, but it's windows look'n'feel is correct at best. It's strong point is, that without additional tweaks it almost everywhere looks native.
I've been using Swing, and it works fine. NetBeans (a decent IDE by itself) even supports graphical GUI building.
It's well designed (basically
everything is done with listeners,
functions that are registered for a
certain event). It has bindings, so
you don't have to write code to set
up a value in a text field or read
it out
Layout is not perfect, but
acceptable within NetBeans. It's
WYSIWYG (almost). Look-and-feel can
be changed on the fly.
License is free. Source-code is not
available, I think.
Looks fine on Windows and Linux,
less so on OSX.
You could always try SWT. The advantages of Java with the standard L&F of supported operating systems.
Well designed. Lots of
documentation, and very easy to
develop with. (If you know Swing,
you can pick up SWT in no time.)
I believe layout managers do exist
that support SWT. I'm not positive
about this though, as I typically
don't use layout managers too much.
Uses the Eclipse Public
License. Should meet most of
your requirements.
From Wikipedia on SWT:
SWT is written in Java. To display GUI elements, the SWT implementation accesses the native GUI libraries of the operating system using JNI (Java Native Interface) in a manner that is similar to those programs written using operating system-specific APIs. Programs that call SWT are portable, but the implementation of the toolkit, despite the fact that it is written in Java, is unique for each platform.
Hope that helps you.
I'd suggest wxWidgets if you want to program in C++ or wxPython (the python language binding of wxWidgets if you know or don't mind learning Python.
Architecture is similar to QT I think.
Layout using sizers. Quite easy once you get the hang of it.
Liberal open source license.
Widgets are native on all platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux).
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.
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I've been wanting to become proficient in a new language for a while. There are a few languages I want to learn but it's pretty important for me to be able to create a (Application) GUI. I work in C# so I have become very accustom to the GUI designer.
I would love to get better with C++ or Java (both of which I have a small amount of experience with). Other languages could be interesting too. I just really need to be able to make a GUI reasonably easily.
So what (non .net) language has a really good method of designing GUIs?
An extension to this question might be what are the most common GUI APIs/designers?
I would recommend you to look at Delphi. It's object pascal with a nice IDE and a nice community!
Take a look at www.codegear.com
CodeGear have also a C++ IDE, so you can have the bundle and put your hand dirty at Delphi and C++!
Hope his helps
vIceBerg
I agree with pmlarocque in that you should use NetBeans if using Java. It really makes GUI design easy.
As an aside, I also recommend pencil and paper. That really has helped me throughout the years, start making sketches of what you want it to be then replicate it in the IDE.
For GUI in C++ you should look C++ Builder, you can get Turbo C++ Explorer for free
I use both Visual Studio and Delphi, and the Delphi GUI editor is significantly better. It is worth a try. They make a free version.
May I recommend Flex? Flex Builder has a really nice GUI designer.
As for Java, both NetBeans and Eclipse IDEs are good choices.
To design GUIs in Java, you can use SWT, AWT or Swing widget toolkits.
I heard that some people experienced problems with SWT projects running on NetBeans. However, NetBeans comes with a built-in GUI Builder for Swing , a very powerful widget toolkit.
Of course, there's also a plug-in for Eclipse that allows you to build Swing GUIs, so it basically comes down to which IDE you prefer...
NetBeans has a great Swing GUI Builder (formerly Project Matisse). This is for Java, I think it was started by Sun but is an open source project. Very similar to Eclipse, but I found an advantage with NetBeans due to this GUI builder.
Check it out at: http://www.netbeans.org/features/java/swing.html
The cross-platform Qt GUI framework (which is mainly for C++) comes with Qt Designer.
Interface Builder and Qt Designer are by far the best GUI design tools I've ever used.
WPF/Silverlight: Expression Blend
Not as big as it used to be, but Powerbuilder.
Visual Dataflex has a decent GUI editor. It's a nice solution for building "database-agnostic" database applications.
Use Microsoft Expression Blend to layout your GUI.
WPF...
Before, I was using Qt Designer. First time I started using Expression Blend, I fell in love with it. So much easier to use than Qt Designer.
If your app requires high-performance, back-end it with some native-code language like C++.
If not, just stick with C# or Python.
Remember it's not just the tool that you use, but how it works as a whole
Too many combinations of different languages/vendors sometimes just makes you want to pull your hair our!
Well, I have two options: Objective-C on the Mac using Cocoa GUI framework, or Java for everything (Mac, Linux, MS-Windows) using the Swing API.
If you want to program in Objective-C targeting Mac OS X operating system for Apple Macintosh, iPhone, or iPod Touch - then the Interface Builder that comes bundled with the Xcode IDE (part of the Developer bundle) is really good.
You will need a Mac, of course, to be able to use it. If you have a Linux or Windows PC already, then you probably have a monitor, USB mouse, and USB keyboard. So you could get an Mac Mini for $599 and hook those up to it.
The Developer bundle is free. Just go to developer.apple.com and sign up for free Developer tools once you get your Mac.
If you are going to be a professional developer, then you might want to go there before you get your Macintosh and see if registering as a Pro and buying a Macintosh and stuff under that deal would net you more bang for your buck.
This Interface Builder of Apple's is pretty famous. It is what gave the NeXT computer is high reputation for being the way to create applications really fast. Wall Street financial firms, government agencies, and research types - plus a fair number of 3rd party commercial software developers - used it to create GUI applications very rapidly.
The name of Apple's Cocoa framework, by the way, used to be Next Step. When Apple bough NeXT from Steve Jobs, they renamed Next Step Cocoa. However, the classes still begin with NS as a little artifact of their heritage.
What people like about Interface Builder is that it has a very good layout manager and it lets you "wire" UI objects to other objects, making the latter "targets". Wiring them together this way creates a "connection".
So far this sounds very unexciting, I know. However, it gets exciting when you start doing it. You can design your actual runnable GUI in the designer and actually run it before you have written any code. Writing code lets you incrementally flesh out the user interface that have behavior more than UI stimulus-response behavior.
Anyway, the idea is that you can bang out a prototype extremely quickly, get feedback from someone based on this concrete GUI - and then fill in the details with Objective-C programming.
The most famous thing that was ever created with Next Step (Cocoa) is the World Wide Web (WWW). You may have heard of it. Well, the first web browser in the world was created by Tim Berniers-Lee at CERN in 1989 using Next Step, which had just come out the year before (1988).
He said he liked Next Step because it let him create his web browser very quickly. Even more impressively, his web browser not only allowed users to view web pages - his browsre also let users edit the web pages they viewed.
If you want to program in Java, NetBeans has a very nice Swing GUI designer.
It comes built into NetBeans. The GUI designer very easy to use and seems to have a full set of capabilities. My ownly dislike is that it puts commented sections in the code that you cannot edit. JBuilder did not put those annoying comments/restrictions in but JBuilder has pretty much faded from the scene these days.
Another downside of NetBeans is that it creates a .form file with the same name as the GUI class you are editing. Java code refactoring tools, other than NetBeans, are not going to know about this file. So, if you manually move the package the class is part of (or rename the class) - or use Eclipse or some other program to do it - you are going to have problems. You will need to be sure to use NetBeans to move/rename your class.
Eclipse had one in the form of an experimental plugin that was an okay start for a GUI designer called VE (Visual Editor) a number of years back. However, VE does not appear to have been updated in a couple of years.
I really like the true portability of Java programs. Java programs with GUIs are no exception.
I recommend adopting Java as your new language and using NetBeans as your first IDE, since you favor GUI program designs with a WYSIWYG editor.
Later, I suggest you also learn Eclipse. That way you will benefit from its more powerful code editing/refactoring capabilities.
You do not have to make an either-or choice between the two IDEs. With some caveats, like I have given - you can use both.
Netbeans IDE for Java as a sweet GUI designer.
Java Netbeans is good, and since java is fairly close to c# in syntax, it might make an easy learning experience
wxGlade is a GUI designer that can generate Python, C++, Perl, or Lisp and uses the wxWidgets library. And it's free.
IntelliJ IDEA for Java
http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/gui_builder.html
Here's a video:
http://www.javalobby.org/eps/intellij_ui_designer/
Vaadin
You can write business-oriented desktop-style web apps using only Java on the server side yet rendered automatically using Web standards client-side in the web browser.
The Vaadin Framework provides the magic of letting you define your desired fields, labels, buttons, and other widgets in a layout all using pure Java. By harnassing GWT technology, Vaadin transforms your Java code at runtime into the content for display in a user’s web browser. Your app is rendered using all the Web goodness of HTTP, HTTP/2, HTML, HTML5, CSS, DOM, JavaScript, WebSocket, Push, and so on… but does so transparently to the Java programmer. All that transformation is done under the covers. As a Vaadin programmer, all I deal with is Java coding.
I prefer using the well-documented API to programmatically layout the contents of my forms and widgets for the user-interface. You can do so free-of-cost using the open-source framework.
Alternatively, you can use their commercial product Vaadin Designer for a visual drag-and-drop layout editor tool.
Try the live Sampler and other demos such as Reindeer demo.
Since you mentioned you use C++, I'd recommend MatDeck(https://labdeck.com/comparison/). They offer a GUI Designer in their unique code. Their code is based on C++(It's called MatDeck C++ style code) and since it's specialized to their software it needs a lot less code to run. They offer much more and are a fully-fledged software. They also have a whole page that compares their code(https://labdeck.com/python/c-style-script/).
Some of the requirements (restrictions) for such a ui framework/toolkit are:
No single vendor lock down
Ability for real time data visualization
Good initial widgets
Good dash boarding capabilities
cross platform
Good development/debug environment
No flash
It's a pity you can't/won't use Flash. Else I could really recommend Adobe AIR. It has a good editor (Flex Builder built on Eclipse), a good component framework with many out of the box components, charting components set, ability to communicate with many different protocols (and you could write your own protocol implementation), cross platform, runs in the AIR runtime and not in the browser, file IO, ...
I wouldn't pass over Flex/Air (Flash) without a closer consideration but here are a few others I have come across:
wxWidgets
GTK+
Qt
There is also a slashdot post with links to some tookits I haven't heard of. I'll add their recommendations here:
GLUI, an OpenGL-based GUI
Whisper, a Mac/Windows application framework
WxWindows, a framework which supports Windows 3.1/95/98/NT, and Unix with GTK/Motif/Lesstif, and MacOS
YAAF, Yet Another Application Framework, offering suport for Macintosh OS, Windows 95 and Windows NT, and X Windows
CPLAT, a framework for developing MacOS and Windows (Linux soon) applications
Ardi's Carbonless Copies technology, which is a portable rewrite of much of the MacOS API
For general information:
GUI Toolkit/Framework Page
PIGUI FAQ Page
C++ User's Journal PIGUI Page
I might suggest Mozilla XUL, but it has some drawbacks:
No really good development / debug environment (although there are tools and debuggers; they are variable)
You are locked into a vendor, but it is Mozilla.
It is very easy to use though and allows you to reuse your web Javascript skills for a rich-client app.
There's also Java of course. It satifies all your requirements AFAICS.
Plenty of custom charting controls, which are things you will struggle to find for GTK/WxWindows/$other_small_userbase_framework.
If you dont like Swing(its come a long way - Metal is dead, long live SystemDefault L&F!), there are options like SWT or even QT bindings for java(QTJambi).
For C or C++ go QT, its APIs are really nice.
For RCAs check out Eclipse RCP. For RIAs, you might be interested in OpenLaszlo. It's a rich internet platform that can compile both to Flash and DHTML.
http://www.gnustep.org/
"GNUstep is a cross-platform, object-oriented framework for desktop application development. Based on the OpenStep specification originally created by NeXT (now Apple), GNUstep enables developers to rapidly build sophisticated software by employing a large library of reusable software components."
Portable to: Windows, BSD-based systems, Linux-based systems, HP/UX, , Solaris, Sparc, GNUstep Solaris 10 U2 vmware appliance, OpenSolaris, others.
I recently made a pretty complete list here: http://commadot.com/ria-frameworks/
ExtJS is probably my favorite and we use that at work. I think it satisfies your list. Otherwise, there are a bunch of other possibilities on that page.