linux gui stuff

[ih8censorship]

Im interested in making some relativly simple graphical games/gui stuff under linux. However i am a bit confused with all the toolkits and what not and im not entirely sure what i even need... like theres kits for gnome, kde (which i use mostly) , QT, wxwidgets ect, and i have no clue which one would be the best one to get started working with would be. any ideas?

[geralds]

Hi ih8, my only experience is with wxW (wxGTK for Linux) and that has worked well for me. I often wish I had the power and flexibility of Qt available to me, but wxW has gained many excellent features over the past year or two I've been using it, and if you're used to the Windows API and perhaps MFC you're off to a flying start.

-Gerald

[myork]

OK Gnome and KDE are higher level "Windowing Toolkits".
KDE is built on-top of QT which is a lower level "Graphics Toolkit".
Gnome is built on-top of another "Graphics Toolkit" (I am not sure which one).

The "Graphics Toolkit" are all built on-top of X.

I use the term "Windows Toolkit" and "Graphics Toolkit" just to try and differentiate the types of facilities these libraries provide, these are not official terms and I just picked them up from original post.

I like KDE as my desktop.
So when I do a graphical API I use the KDE API and when I need more control I drop down to the QT interface.
The thing I like about KDE (and QT) is that the whole code base is very object orientated (PS I have not used it much just a couple of times so my experience is with the obvious easy parts).

I have no experience with Gnome but I am sure it is fine.

[draco]

Gnome uses the Gnome ToolKit 

[Ravotus]

Well I've done a bit with the actual xLib (I believe that's what it's called, it's been a while). And although I still wasn't thrilled with the fact that it was a C style API, it was much better than the Windows API. Sadly it seems quite lacking in the variety of controls you have. You even have to make a message box yourself with a window, button, etc. :/

[myork]

Well xLib is like way down at the bottom of the toolkit stack.
There are several toolkits built ontop of xLib that build higher level objects.

[KTC]

Gnome is built on-top of another "Graphics Toolkit" (I am not sure which one).

GTK+

[KTC]

X <- Xlib <- GTK+ <- GNOME

X <- Xlib <- Qt <- KDE

X <- Xlib <- Xt <- Motif <-

Seeing a pattern there Ravotus ?

[Ravotus]

Indeed, what's your point?

[dr voodoo]

Indeed, what's your point?

xlib should only (mainly) be used when designing your own set of controls from ground up. If you just want to throw a GUI app together it is not what you want.