Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Discussion of Common Lisp
Lispeth
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Joined: Wed May 13, 2015 8:33 am

Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Lispeth » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:39 am

I'm working on my first CL desktop application, something like a very tiny Maxima (or a very sophisticated calculator). I plan to have it multi-platform, but I'm mainly developing on OS X and Windows. As I want to have a good-looking user interface after having finished the application core, I wonder if there is a good CL binding for any modern toolkit around.

Qt5 does not seem to be a part of the Lisp world yet and it's unclear when that will happen, so I'm, more or less, stuck between two options:
  1. Tcl/Tk

    The current Tk8.6 release does not seem to have wide support yet, I only found simple-tk to support it, but styling Tk's widgets feels weird to me, especially since its documentation doesn't even mention how I can do that.
  2. GTK+

    It's good to know that there is working support for GTK+ 3, and while everything works like a charm on OS X, Windows has a "known issue" of freezing the complete environment when I try to move the window. The author seems to have disappeared by the end of 2014.
Can you help?

Goheeca
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Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Goheeca » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:05 am

You could stick with Qt4 and use CommonQt. The Qt5 support is obviously planned.
There exists CAPI, it looks nice to me, but it's not open/free*.

*It should be noted that I don't mean exact definitions, but rather my feelings about that.
cl-2dsyntax is my attempt to create a Python-like reader. My mirror of CLHS (and the dark themed version). Temporary mirrors of aferomentioned: CLHS and a dark version.

Lispeth
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed May 13, 2015 8:33 am

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Lispeth » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:11 am

Having to stick with Qt4 for now implies a major rewrite "soon" (when Qt5 is integrated). :?

I could live with apprentice's premium if it wasn't so expensive just to start something.

*edit: Ah, I thought it was a part of the commercial LispWorks. I can live with unfree software, I don't plan to release mine as open source either. Does CAPI have features which TTk lacks?

Goheeca
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Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Goheeca » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:32 am

I can't tell, I've only used CommonQt. But after one brief glimpse, the CAPI is lacking native dialogs (eg. file chooser) and simple-tk has it.
cl-2dsyntax is my attempt to create a Python-like reader. My mirror of CLHS (and the dark themed version). Temporary mirrors of aferomentioned: CLHS and a dark version.

Lispeth
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed May 13, 2015 8:33 am

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Lispeth » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:45 am

Hmm, do you happen to know how to change the color of, let's say, the first two characters of a line in a text widget in simple-tk? It seems that this is everything I need to get started (for now). It's pretty easy in GTK.

mcheema
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Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:58 am

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by mcheema » Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:13 am

you might also want to check qtools which seems to be fairly actively maintained and developed https://shinmera.github.io/qtools/

This project builds on commonqt and tries to provide a layer on top of that.

Lispeth
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed May 13, 2015 8:33 am

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by Lispeth » Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:16 am

The problem with qtools is the same; that its stack is not Qt5-ready yet.

mcheema
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:58 am

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by mcheema » Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:18 am

^^
Fair enough. I still just use LTK (Tk based library) in a very rudimentary way so I am no GUI expert but GTK sounds like a good way to go. Good luck.

marcoxa
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:31 pm

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by marcoxa » Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:20 am

The correct question re: CAPI and TK/LTk is the following.

What is in CAPI that is not in TK/LTk? :D

BTW. With LW you have a choice of using the GTk-based version of CAPI.

Cheers
MA
Marco Antoniotti

marcoxa
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:31 pm

Re: Is there any decent GUI toolkit for MS Windows?

Post by marcoxa » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:20 am

Goheeca wrote:I can't tell, I've only used CommonQt. But after one brief glimpse, the CAPI is lacking native dialogs (eg. file chooser) and simple-tk has it.
CAPI has "native" dialogs (e.g., the File Chooser) everywhere. Look for CAPI:PROMPT-FOR-* (the * stands for pretty much everything).

Cheers

MA
Marco Antoniotti

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