Developing for both windows and linux

JoeImp · Posted: 27 Apr 2007 09:33:43 pm Post subject:

Please, no replies from people who have no idea what they're talking about. This is mostly aimed at Arcane Wizard and a couple other people here.

I've recently switched from windows to linux (2.6.19-r5 and gentoo), and I'm loving it so far. I want to start a new project, and I've decided to try and make it compatible for both windows and linux. I've never programmed for linux before, so it should be interesting. All I need is support for guis, I don't need any advanced graphics or anything. I've been googling around for how best to develop for both platforms, and the best I've come across is this wxwidgets, which seems pretty cool. How would you suggest I go ahead and make gui's that are easily cross-platform used/compiled?

CoBB · Active Member Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 720

What exactly do you want to know? As long as your code is gcc friendly and you’re not trying to work around the wxWidgets API, you’ll be able to compile it under both systems without any modification, given that wxWidgets is configured properly. In fact, MinGW is also available under Linux, so you can produce Windows executables without switching systems (I never tried that with wxWidgets specifically, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work).

Of course if you use certain POSIX functionality (like sockets or fork), you’ll need Cygwin for the Windows port.

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 28 Apr 2007 02:55:53 am Post subject:

I've always just used bare GTK2, but wxwidgets looks nice.

AlienCC · Posted: 28 Apr 2007 03:02:37 am Post subject:

What language are you using to develop in, and are you using test driven development?

Some tools that you might find useful (we do):
http://www.boost.org/tools/build/jam_src/index.html
http://mockpp.sourceforge.net/ - C++
http://www.jmock.org/ - Java

Good choice with wxwidgets, it is nice.

JoeImp · Posted: 28 Apr 2007 01:33:43 pm Post subject:

Bah, how could I forget to mention that I'll be using C++. Not going to use test driven development, going to stick to something more traditional. Guess I'll figure out how to use wxwidgets, time to start learning.

JoeImp · Posted: 23 May 2007 06:52:58 pm Post subject:

You would be one of the people that

AlienCC · Posted: 24 May 2007 01:40:13 am Post subject:

You may want to look into test driven development, it has proven very succesful so far. What I'm seeing are functions that work as expected the first time. Development time seems a little bit longer at first but results in almost no debugging necessary later on. The time seems to be better spent pushing forward with development, and no mystery time that is hidden from sight trying to track down and fix weird bugs. This seems especially important when developing for multiple platforms simultaneously. Another benefit is that you will never have the same bug again once you fix it in this model.

I would have never believed this about test driven development until I saw it for myself.

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 04:18:43 am Post subject:

elfprince13 · Posted: 24 May 2007 08:17:08 am Post subject:

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 11:18:43 am Post subject:

I really can't be bothered with OS X support. GTK2 default theme is either sufficient or I define all GUI components so it looks the same on either platform.

CoBB · Active Member Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 720

GTK is terribly slow and ugly under Windows.

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 12:45:25 pm Post subject:

It's slower than native rendering just as it is in linux. Not terribly slow (troll more) but slower. Don't use it if you need those milliseconds spared here and there at the expense of development.

Ugly on Windows? Why don't you actually define your components' looks if they are so important? My first gtk app looked just as horrible in linux so I made it look good in gnome and it immedeately looked good (identical in fact) in Windows. Didn't have to fix any code between platforms and I didn't have to redesign my component's layout/sizes (in fact the default gtk auto layout management sufficed) due to Win32 rendering using entirely different settings from gnome/x.

Maybe you guys are of the type who are sufficiently supported by some IDE's app generator and never manage their GUI beyond the exact code it generates and then focus solely on the business logic. I actually spend a significant portion of my time developing a usefull GUI, wether it's in Java Swing and all the defaults look great by themselves or it's in Perl with GTK1 that lacks a nice default theme.

If GTK doesn't fit your needs, and it may not if you want to fully support the KDE environment for example (all of you should learn some real arguments against GTK btw silly nubtrolls), use something else. If wxwidgets doesn't suffice, and it may not fit your development methods, use something else. Sometimes you simply can't use something because of the licenses that apply. Other times the coding standards for a project may not allow a particular library. Anyway there is no single multiplatform API we should all use for all our projects, so learn to research and develop appropriately for each project. Use the right tools for the job.

Things like /how/ you develop the GUI are crucial to choosing in /what/ you develop it, so before you accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about, let your judgement run over those who stated nothing usefull at all.

And stop being platform, language, API, and IDE fanbois because it won't improve your products.

Weregoose · Posted: 24 May 2007 01:10:08 pm Post subject:

Do you enjoy the rush of alienating people, Arcane? You can be objective and give insightful details without squandering your thought processes on belittling others; there are about a million ways you can say that last line in a positive, encouraging manner, let alone without degrading anyone, thus I am dumbstruck that you can call others trolls without taking a hard look at yourself. I hate being demeaning, but it infuriates me when someone selects to lessen others' morale. Call me a "fanboi" of good will, but I think I make a point.

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 01:20:34 pm Post subject:

Go back to calling me an a in PM's so this topic can continue to pertain to development libraries. It would lessen others' morale less.

Weregoose · Posted: 24 May 2007 01:43:17 pm Post subject:

Never once did I call you an a. I worded my messages very carefully in hopes that you'd realize that I was trying to assist you. The staff members all have a copy of the conversation to verify this; all you're doing by making such bizarre claims as my turning to that behavior is hurting your integrity and even moreso yourself. You obviously aren't seeing what you do very well. As of now, I'm beginning Wink

to think that you honestly have no will to cooperate with the staff members of this forum, so I will make sure to hold an assembly with them to determine what should be done about all this. You never "shh" a teacher who shushes you first – you might just get sent to the principal's office.

[EDIT]

JoeImp, it could have arisen in any thread. I'm sorry it happened here.

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 03:40:34 pm Post subject:

Oh yes, I'm sorry, you only called me a a. a was probably in the IRC logs you didn't want to share, or I'm just mistaking over that exact word. Whatever.

Don't mistake any reaction to your own hypocricy in not following your own advice for lack of will to cooperate with the staff members that do not reason solely based on the premise of the other guy being wrong.

School politics hold no real grounds, regardless of the consequences. A principle once had an open meeting with me, 10 minutes later he agreed the teacher was in the wrong and negated all his decisions on the matter. My behaviour in class is fine, if a teacher shushed me for calling a group fanbois he'd better have some real arguments regarding freedom of speech or take his own poor advice. Still, plenty of inane teachers who think they're right because they can put bureaucratic actions to their words.

If I am to be banned for responding to a really poor argument with the word "fanbois" then so be it, but that doesn't mean the system is right. And what a great demonstration of that system it would be.

Weregoose · Posted: 24 May 2007 04:27:30 pm Post subject:

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 04:44:39 pm Post subject:

Arcane Wizard · Posted: 24 May 2007 04:45:17 pm Post subject:

spandiv · Posted: 24 May 2007 04:54:13 pm Post subject: