# Free(real Free) GUI toolkits **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [31 July 2004 21:18 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842 "2004-07-31T21:18:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [31 July 2004 21:18 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/1 "2004-07-31T21:18:24Z")
Has anyone tried using the WideStudio libraries with Ruby? They seem to be neat and clean on the unix operating systems. Anyone tried it with Windows or MacOSX? I need some input please. It is a MIT licensed and completely free toolkit, compared to LGPL. It has a IDE which is very easy to design with. It has extensions for many languages. English page: [http://www.widestudio.org/EE/index.html](http://www.widestudio.org/EE/index.html) Japanese page: [http://www.widestudio.org](http://www.widestudio.org) Please give some input on it. Supports C/C++, Perl, Python, Ruby programing language. --David Ross > **···** > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![HAL\_9000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/90ced4/32.png) [@HAL\_9000](https://rubytalk.org/u/HAL_9000)\ **Post date:** [31 July 2004 21:31 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/2 "2004-07-31T21:31:58Z")
David Ross wrote: > Has anyone tried using the WideStudio libraries with > Ruby? They seem to be neat and clean on the unix > operating systems. Anyone tried it with Windows or > MacOSX? I need some input please. It is a MIT licensed > and completely free toolkit, compared to LGPL. It has > a IDE which is very easy to design with. It has > extensions for many languages. > > English page: [WideStudio/MWT Home page](http://www.widestudio.org/EE/index.html) > Japanese page: [http://www.widestudio.org](http://www.widestudio.org) > > Please give some input on it. > > Supports C/C++, Perl, Python, Ruby programing > language. I haven't tried this (or even heard of it before), but it does sound interesting. Some questions I would have: 1. It mentions it supports Ruby -- I guess the app designer can generate Ruby code -- but I've never heard of a Ruby binding for it. What's the deal there? 2. I wonder if it supports MDI. I know the whole industry is trending away from MDI, but I adamantly maintain that it makes sense in some cases. (Large number of tiny documents as opposed to a small number of large docs.) Hal ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [31 July 2004 22:04 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/3 "2004-07-31T22:04:39Z")
One thing I forgot to mention. It supports.. Supports UNICODE(UTF8) and multi encoding function with various kind of encodeing like EUC-JP,SJIS,EUC-KR,EUC-CN,UTF8,ISO8859-X. Supports OpenGL and database(PostgreSQL/MySQL/ODBC). --David Ross > **···** > > --- David Ross \ wrote: > > > Has anyone tried using the WideStudio libraries with > > Ruby? They seem to be neat and clean on the unix > > operating systems. Anyone tried it with Windows or > > MacOSX? I need some input please. It is a MIT > > licensed > > and completely free toolkit, compared to LGPL. It > > has > > a IDE which is very easy to design with. It has > > extensions for many languages. > > > > English page: > > [WideStudio/MWT Home page](http://www.widestudio.org/EE/index.html) > > Japanese page: [http://www.widestudio.org](http://www.widestudio.org) > > > > Please give some input on it. > > > > Supports C/C++, Perl, Python, Ruby programing > > language. > > > > --David Ross > > > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![James\_Britt6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@James\_Britt6](https://rubytalk.org/u/James_Britt6)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 13:47 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/4 "2004-08-01T13:47:09Z")
David Ross wrote: > Please give some input on it. I thought I'd give it a try on Win2K. It took a bit of time to figure out how to construct a basic window/form. I still don't see how to attach code to controls. Help does not work correctly. It attempts to load this URL http://%1%20"file://E:/Program%20Files/WideStudio/ws/doc/C/builder-doc/builder.html"    It loads if I remove the section just before "E:/" It would be nice if each page in the set of help Web pages had a "next" and "previous" link, as right now one has to go back to the table of contents to move to find the link to move to the next section. So far, don't find it all too intuitive. Little things seem awkward. For example, when I click on the 'Save' icon, I get a message box telling me some things have changed, and do I want to save them? Well, yes. That's why I clicked the 'Save' icon. And WS Builder doesn't respond to Alt-F4. James ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [31 July 2004 22:01 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/5 "2004-07-31T22:01:50Z")
> I haven't tried this (or even heard of it before), > but it does sound > interesting. It was a project started in 2000. It died in 2002, the author revived it. I hope people to contribute code. I will create X widgets myself for commercial purposes, and submit them. Just because it isnt LGPL or GPL(restrictive licenses). > Some questions I would have: > > 1. It mentions it supports Ruby -- I guess the app > designer can generate > Ruby code -- but I've never heard of a Ruby binding > for it. What's the > deal there? You open wsbuilder, go in to options, then click etc. then change the language to ruby. then you click generate code. here is a small piece of the code generated.     @newdial\_006 = Mpfc::WSCdialog.new(@newbase\_005,"newdial\_006")     @newdial\_006.init     @newdial\_006.setProperty("name","newdial\_006")     @newdial\_006.setProperty("titleString","title5")     @newdial\_006.setProperty("x",10)     @newdial\_006.setProperty("y",10)     @newdial\_006.setProperty("width",200)     @newdial\_006.setProperty("height",50)     @newwin000.setVisible(1) what would be better here is.. Mpfc::WSCdialog.new(@newbase\_005,"newdial\_006",name,title,x,y,w,h) maybe it has it, I might just not be looking. I am fairly new to this GUI toolkit myself. I thought I should share this MIT licensed kit with the people of ruby. I realize this looks a bit messy, someone could help the developer improve on his code, unless I am just missing something. Yes, it does have different look and feels that are "pretty". I would like to see this free(MIT) toolkit improve to a better look and feel to the guis and widgets. No, it does not have MDI. I think I will promote the WideStudio and convince people that it can be a good widely used future toolkit. It still lacks many common widgets. That doesn't bother me since I know X programming well though :). I do see a bright future in this toolkit if it remains free. I would definitely like to see it used in commercial applications, Widget creation is not very difficult, it just takes a bit of X programming with the C language. --David Ross > **···** > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 16:44 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/6 "2004-08-01T16:44:02Z")
> I thought I'd give it a try on Win2K. > > It took a bit of time to figure out how to construct > a basic > window/form. I still don't see how to attach code > to controls. mmmm. I have seen it somewhere. Oh right... its in the procedures. you have to create procedures, then double click on them, it will open your favorite editor, I think you can set the editor in options. > Help does not work correctly. It attempts to load > this URL Its main aim was unix oriented systems and the T-Engine. I guess patches could be made, is this on all the help or just that one? > It would be nice if each page in the set of help Web > pages had a "next" > and "previous" link, as right now one has to go back > to the table of > contents to move to find the link to move to the > next section. the documentation is \*HUGE\*. There should be.. would be nice. I think that there are no comments in the code specifically because they stripped comments out. If the comments were in per say UTF8(which I guess they have thier own parser) the sources would be double the size. > So far, don't find it all too intuitive. Little > things seem awkward. Yes, I do too, I have even found bugs that I will end up writing patches for. There is something strange with the WSNdata in the tree and list controls in the wsbuilder gui. >   For example, when I click on the 'Save' icon, I > get a message box > telling me some things have changed, and do I want > to save them? Well, > yes. That's why I clicked the 'Save' icon. 🙂 I know, I laughed at this. It saves on exit asking you the same question, and saves when you click compile. I should patch the gui all to hell, I found a memory leak in 1 widget in the ObjectViewer that lets you drag and drop widgets so you don't have to learn the names.. if you would. try creating a progress bar from the objectViewer, It could be a library problem on my system, unsure. > And WS Builder doesn't respond to Alt-F4. was not aimed to be on windows. Maybe I could take a look at this "horrible" code (/me laughs) lothar\_troll is talking about later. I did look at the code too, I did see no problem with that type of style, names were defined very well where I could look and tell what it was, but then again, I know how to code well. --David > **···** > > ---------------------------------------------- > Brought to you by #1 IRC asshole > Trolls deserve to be knocked on thier ass > Good people deserve respect > drossruby@yahoo.com > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > Y! Messenger - Communicate in real time. Download now. > [http://messenger.yahoo.com](http://messenger.yahoo.com) ---
**Author:** ![Lothar\_Scholz2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Lothar\_Scholz2](https://rubytalk.org/u/Lothar_Scholz2)\ **Post date:** [31 July 2004 23:57 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/7 "2004-07-31T23:57:28Z")
Hello David, > > I haven't tried this (or even heard of it before), > > but it does sound > > interesting. > > It was a project started in 2000. It died in 2002, the > author revived it. I hope people to contribute code. I > will create X widgets myself for commercial purposes, > and submit them. Just because it isnt LGPL or > GPL(restrictive licenses). I hate myself for asking this question: But what is so wrong with the LGPL in an object oriented GUI toolkit where you can create commercial X widgets without any problems for any purpose. I'm speaking about GTK/FOX/FLTK/TK here. > No, it does not have MDI. I think I will promote the > WideStudio and convince people that it can be a good > widely used future toolkit. It still lacks many common > widgets. That doesn't bother me since I know X > programming well though :). I do see a bright future > in this toolkit if it remains free. I would definitely > like to see it used in commercial applications, Widget > creation is not very difficult, it just takes a bit of > X programming with the C language. I believe that the world really don't need another toolkit, with a lot of common widgets still missing. Widget creation is also not very difficult in any toolkit (TK may be an exception). > **···** > > -- > Best regards, emailto: scholz at scriptolutions dot com > Lothar Scholz [http://www.ruby-ide.com](http://www.ruby-ide.com) > CTO Scriptolutions Ruby, PHP, Python IDE 's ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 01:27 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/8 "2004-08-01T01:27:06Z")
> I hate myself for asking this question: > But what is so wrong with the LGPL in an object > oriented GUI toolkit > where you can create commercial X widgets without > any problems for any > purpose. I'm speaking about GTK/FOX/FLTK/TK here. LGPL has strings, if you don't believe me, reread the license. Look at the clauses about distributing non-source binary applications. Then take a really good look at the clauses in wx and FOX (LGPL and the wx license) about binary objects(\*note: binary objects are \*NOT\* binary executables). Thank you for your input. > I believe that the world really don't need another > toolkit, with a lot > of common widgets still missing. Widget creation is > also not very > difficult in any toolkit (TK may be an exception). This toolkit is more flexible than FOX or wxWidgets(wxWindows) will ever be. WS was designed for embedded systems, I am glad that the design works on nix and windows. I am glad to use WS now, it has proved more worthy than FOX,GTK, and Wx. Big deal it lacks the more common widgets you would find in GTK, or even Qt. Hopefully, people will support this better toolkit. You might not find it interesting because most people do not read about embedded devices and read about software like T-Engine. Please research this on your own. the research for WS has been extensive. Its not just \*another\* toolkit. Hmm okay, you must not be into widget design that much, or do not create complex widgets. I don't know about you, but WS is a very good IDE. --David Ross > **···** > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 01:30 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/9 "2004-08-01T01:30:04Z")
Oh a correction, by binary, I meant statically linked and binary. > **···** > > --- David Ross \ wrote: > > > \> I hate myself for asking this question: > > \> But what is so wrong with the LGPL in an object > > \> oriented GUI toolkit > > \> where you can create commercial X widgets without > > \> any problems for any > > \> purpose. I'm speaking about GTK/FOX/FLTK/TK here. > > > > LGPL has strings, if you don't believe me, reread > > the > > license. Look at the clauses about distributing > > non-source binary applications. Then take a really > > good look at the clauses in wx and FOX (LGPL and the > > wx license) about binary objects(\*note: binary > > objects > > are \*NOT\* binary executables). Thank you for your > > input. > > > > \> I believe that the world really don't need another > > \> toolkit, with a lot > > \> of common widgets still missing. Widget creation > > is > > \> also not very > > \> difficult in any toolkit (TK may be an exception). > > > > This toolkit is more flexible than FOX or > > wxWidgets(wxWindows) will ever be. WS was designed > > for > > embedded systems, I am glad that the design works on > > nix and windows. > > > > I am glad to use WS now, it has proved more worthy > > than FOX,GTK, and Wx. Big deal it lacks the more > > common widgets you would find in GTK, or even Qt. > > Hopefully, people will support this better toolkit. > > You might not find it interesting because most > > people > > do not read about embedded devices and read about > > software like T-Engine. Please research this on your > > own. the research for WS has been extensive. Its not > > just \*another\* toolkit. Hmm okay, you must not be > > into > > widget design that much, or do not create complex > > widgets. I don't know about you, but WS is a very > > good > > IDE. --David Ross > > > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! > > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now. > [http://messenger.yahoo.com](http://messenger.yahoo.com) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 05:48 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/10 "2004-08-01T05:48:50Z")
Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can try out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is portable to the mac. WideStudio has plenty of widgets btw. I just didn't play enough with the wsbuilder. I guess things like MDI forms are not important 🙂 --David Ross > **···** > > ------------------------------------------- > drossruby at yahoo (dot} com > > Ruby Production Archive(RPA - the ruby package > manager) > [http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/](http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/) > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![Rando\_Christensen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Rando\_Christensen](https://rubytalk.org/u/Rando_Christensen)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 08:44 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/11 "2004-08-01T08:44:20Z")
David Ross wrote: > Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can try > out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is > portable to the mac. > > WideStudio has plenty of widgets btw. I just didn't > play enough with the wsbuilder. > > I guess things like MDI forms are not important 🙂 Seems like it works pretty well. As a warning, it runs under apple's X11. You might have to have people download it, as most people don't install it by default. It's something like a 60meg download from apple's site. > **···** > > -- > Rando Christensen > \ ---
**Author:** ![Lothar\_Scholz2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Lothar\_Scholz2](https://rubytalk.org/u/Lothar_Scholz2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 12:28 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/12 "2004-08-01T12:28:12Z")
Hello David, > Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can try > out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is > portable to the mac. > WideStudio has plenty of widgets btw. I just didn't > play enough with the wsbuilder. Okay i downloaded the 100 MB Win Installer and played a bit with wsbuilder. I must say that this toolkit can win the second price in the most ugly toolkit competition (the first is for the all time winner FLTK). And there is no theming to change this, looking at the code shows me that there will be no theming for a very long time because the drawing code is deeply buried in the source files. I'm sure that the toolkit is more flexible, just because it uses a TK like approach of managing/accessing attributes by string names. Maybe not bad but quite different. The event procedures that simple functions. So writting C++ code would require extra overhead, but it is okay for different language bindings. The documentation seems not be on the state of a 3.1 release. It describes methods but not which properties are available. There seems to be also no real tutorial for starters. I must say that i don't like FAQ like tutorials, that have a lot of "How to " titles but no integrated 10 min learn the basics code. From the technical point i don't like that the lib has no layout mangement (only Delphi like anchors), a very bad option for everybody who wants to do L10N. The implemented widgets are very very basic. As a toolkit written in Japan there are of course unicode/MBCS (?) handling routines. From the widget design it seems to be much much harder to write or adapt widgets as it is in FOX/QT. I just looked at the "WSClist.cpp" source code to find a place where i can overwrite the item draw method to use my own custom draw hook. It's not possible. But looking at the source code, hey man that code is ugly and completely comment free. Other things, radio+check buttons must always be grouped, so there seems to be also no good separation for layout/logic in the toolkit. So i think it is good that this is a dead project. Don't waste your time to try to work with this toolkit. After working about 8 years with writting GUI's i can tell you that the afford you need to bring this upto date (compared to GTK/QT/FOX) is too expensive and i really doubt that you will find so much programmers helping you. Oh yes i forgot, the WxBuilder - the GUI builder - is nothing where anybody want's to write larger dialogs. > **···** > > -- > Best regards, emailto: scholz at scriptolutions dot com > Lothar Scholz [http://www.ruby-ide.com](http://www.ruby-ide.com) > CTO Scriptolutions Ruby, PHP, Python IDE 's ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 12:29 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/13 "2004-08-01T12:29:08Z")
Yes, I seen that it needed X11 from the build files. Maybe someone could port it to use a native toolkit if it really irritates them. --David Ross > **···** > > > David Ross wrote: > > > > \> Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can > > try > > \> out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is > > \> portable to the mac. > > \> > > \> WideStudio has plenty of widgets btw. I just > > didn't > > \> play enough with the wsbuilder. > > \> > > \> I guess things like MDI forms are not important 🙂 > > \> > > > > Seems like it works pretty well. As a warning, it > > runs under apple's > > X11. You might have to have people download it, as > > most people don't > > install it by default. It's something like a 60meg > > download from apple's > > site. > > > > -- > > Rando Christensen > > \ > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Ross2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@David\_Ross2](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Ross2)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 16:33 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/14 "2004-08-01T16:33:45Z")
"Truth is important, knock down the trolls on thier ass Only good people deserve respect" You know. you are the biggest troll I have ever seen on the mailing list. Really, stop. I'm not kidding. It has all you need. Its free as well, no strings attached. I don't know what the hell your problem is, but stop. Below is my sample app I constructed in 15 minutes after learning the interface. it is simple to create than others. It is very flexible as well. text looks great widgets work great, and it looks the same way on windows. I tried it, works fine. THanks now stfu lothar\_troll. > **[widestudio screenshot by electricmew on DeviantArt](https://www.deviantart.com/electricmew/art/widestudio-screenshot-9394050)** You didn't even research why WideStudio was created. > Okay i downloaded the 100 MB Win Installer and > played a bit with > wsbuilder. I must say that this toolkit can win the > second price in > the most ugly toolkit competition (the first is for > the all time > winner FLTK). And there is no theming to change > this, looking at the > code shows me that there will be no theming for a > very long time > because the drawing code is deeply buried in the > source files. Send patches > I'm sure that the toolkit is more flexible, just > because it uses a > TK like approach of managing/accessing attributes by > string names. Maybe > not bad but quite different. The event procedures > that simple > functions. So writting C++ code would require extra > overhead, but it > is okay for different language bindings. Send patches. > The documentation seems not be on the state of a 3.1 > release. It > describes methods but not which properties are > available. There seems > to be also no real tutorial for starters. I must > say that i don't > like FAQ like tutorials, that have a lot of "How to > " titles but no > integrated 10 min learn the basics code. Send patches > From the technical point i don't like that the lib > has no layout > mangement (only Delphi like anchors), a very bad > option for everybody > who wants to do L10N. The implemented widgets are > very very basic. > As a toolkit written in Japan there are of course > unicode/MBCS (?) > handling routines. From the widget design it seems > to be much much > harder to write or adapt widgets as it is in FOX/QT. > I just looked at > the "WSClist.cpp" source code to find a place where > i can overwrite > the item draw method to use my own custom draw hook. > It's not > possible. But looking at the source code, hey man > that code is ugly and > completely comment free. Other things, radio+check > buttons must always > be grouped, so there seems to be also no good > separation for > layout/logic in the toolkit. send patches or shut up. > So i think it is good that this is a dead project. You are trolling. Stop > Don't waste your > time to try to work with this toolkit. After working > about 8 years > with writting GUI's i can tell you that the afford > you need to bring > this upto date (compared to GTK/QT/FOX) is too > expensive and i really > doubt that you will find so much programmers helping > you. not really. > Oh yes i forgot, the WxBuilder - the GUI builder - > is nothing where > anybody want's to write larger dialogs. umm works fine for large guis. > **···** > > ------------------------------------------------ > Brought to you by the world biggest IRC asshole > Truth is important, knock down the trolls on thier ass > Only good people deserve respect > David Ross > drossruby@yahoo.com > > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Do you Yahoo!? > New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! > [http://promotions.yahoo.com/new\_mail](http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail) ---
**Author:** ![H\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@H\_Simpson](https://rubytalk.org/u/H_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [2 August 2004 04:41 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/15 "2004-08-02T04:41:42Z")
Lothar, Maybe you should put a disclaimer stating that you are selling a competing product at the top of messages criticizing free software in the same category as your product. I'm not accusing you of bias or anything, I just believe it's better to let people know about any conflicts of interest so they don't get the wrong impression when they find out later. They might misunderstand your good intentions to keep us informed and decide not to buy from you... Lothar Scholz wrote: > [SNIP] \> And there is no theming to change this, looking at the > code shows me that there will be no theming for a very long time > because the drawing code is deeply buried in the source files. Under the "Options" menu, there's a "Look and Feel" submenu that brings up: standard1, standard2, modern1, modern2, classic1, classic2 \> [SNIP] \> So i think it is good that this is a dead project. Don't waste your \> time to try to work with this toolkit. Why do you think it is a dead project? Saying it is dead, doesn't make it so. The latest release is 3.80-3 which was released July 25, 2004. Here's the last dozen entries from the release history. # 25/07/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.80-3) # 13/07/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.80-2) # 01/07/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.80-1) # 03/06/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-10) # 02/06/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-9) # 18/05/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-8) # 21/03/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-7) # 29/02/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-6) # 21/02/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-5) # 20/02/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-4) # 22/01/2004 Released WideStudio(v3.70-3) # 13/12/2002 Released WideStudio(v3.20-1) Here are my impressions about Wise Studio 3.80. There are many widgets and many options for each widget. You can move and resize widgets using the mouse and watch their properties update in real-time while doing so. Not too shabby for a free IDE that supports c/c++, perl, and ruby. The main complaint I have is the size of executables when linking statically. A hello world window application statically linked was 2.7MB while the dynamically linked was only around 100KB (but requires widestudio runtime DLLs). This was using the included GCC/MinGW32 c++ compiler. I haven't tried yet but maybe using the free Optimizing c++ compiler from Microsoft will produce smaller executables (VC++ Toolkit 2003 v1.01). There's an option to store GUI components in files for loading/use at runtime (as opposed to keeping them inside executables) but I haven't explored that yet. I'd love to see something like this for Fox Toolkit. ---
**Author:** ![Sander\_Jansen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sander\_Jansen1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Sander_Jansen1)\ **Post date:** [4 August 2004 04:46 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/16 "2004-08-04T04:46:28Z")
Not impressed either.... BUT since I had nothing to do, I added to my GUI widget comparison page at the FOX Community wiki page. Feel free to add or fix any entry's. [http://fox-toolkit.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Widget\_Comparison](http://fox-toolkit.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Widget_Comparison)   Sander > **···** > > On Sunday 01 August 2004 07:28 am, Lothar Scholz wrote: > > > Hello David, > > > > \> Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can try > > \> out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is > > \> portable to the mac. > > > > \> WideStudio has plenty of widgets btw. I just didn't > > \> play enough with the wsbuilder. > > > > Okay i downloaded the 100 MB Win Installer and played a bit with > > wsbuilder. I must say that this toolkit can win the second price in > > the most ugly toolkit competition (the first is for the all time > > winner FLTK). And there is no theming to change this, looking at the > > code shows me that there will be no theming for a very long time > > because the drawing code is deeply buried in the source files. > > > > I'm sure that the toolkit is more flexible, just because it uses a > > TK like approach of managing/accessing attributes by string names. Maybe > > not bad but quite different. The event procedures that simple > > functions. So writting C++ code would require extra overhead, but it > > is okay for different language bindings. > > > > The documentation seems not be on the state of a 3.1 release. It > > describes methods but not which properties are available. There seems > > to be also no real tutorial for starters. I must say that i don't > > like FAQ like tutorials, that have a lot of "How to " titles but no > > integrated 10 min learn the basics code. > > > > From the technical point i don't like that the lib has no layout > > mangement (only Delphi like anchors), a very bad option for everybody > > who wants to do L10N. The implemented widgets are very very basic. > > As a toolkit written in Japan there are of course unicode/MBCS (?) > > handling routines. From the widget design it seems to be much much > > harder to write or adapt widgets as it is in FOX/QT. I just looked at > > the "WSClist.cpp" source code to find a place where i can overwrite > > the item draw method to use my own custom draw hook. It's not > > possible. But looking at the source code, hey man that code is ugly and > > completely comment free. Other things, radio+check buttons must always > > be grouped, so there seems to be also no good separation for > > layout/logic in the toolkit. > > > > So i think it is good that this is a dead project. Don't waste your > > time to try to work with this toolkit. After working about 8 years > > with writting GUI's i can tell you that the afford you need to bring > > this upto date (compared to GTK/QT/FOX) is too expensive and i really > > doubt that you will find so much programmers helping you. > > > > Oh yes i forgot, the WxBuilder - the GUI builder - is nothing where > > anybody want's to write larger dialogs. > > -- > "Nervous hands grip tight the knife > In the darkness, till the cake is cut" >   - Peter Gabriel ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Freeze2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@Jim\_Freeze2](https://rubytalk.org/u/Jim_Freeze2)\ **Post date:** [4 August 2004 13:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/17 "2004-08-04T13:23:34Z")
\* Lothar Scholz \ [2004-08-01 21:28:12 +0900]: > Okay i downloaded the 100 MB Win Installer and played a bit with > wsbuilder. I must say that this toolkit can win the second price in > the most ugly toolkit competition (the first is for the all time > winner FLTK). Wow. I am suprised to hear that. I always thought of FLTK as a fast and lean toolkit. Can you explain more. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Reinder\_Verlinde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Reinder\_Verlinde](https://rubytalk.org/u/Reinder_Verlinde)\ **Post date:** [8 August 2004 21:01 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/18 "2004-08-08T21:01:22Z")
In article \<410CAD5B.8030405@illuzionz.org\>, > **···** > > Rando Christensen \ wrote: > > > David Ross wrote: > > > > \> Hmm.. does anyone have a MacOSX computer they can try > > \> out WideStudio on? I am curious to see if it is > > \> portable to the mac. > > > > Seems like it works pretty well. As a warning, it runs under apple's > > X11. > > "it works pretty well", combined with "it runs under apple's X11" really > means that it is not a Mac application at all, and Mac users will in all > likelihood not find it a suitable solution. > > Reinder ---
**Author:** ![George5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7c8e57/32.png) [@George5](https://rubytalk.org/u/George5)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 16:44 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/19 "2004-08-01T16:44:00Z")
David Ross wrote: > [widestudio screenshot by electricmew on DeviantArt](http://www.deviantart.com/view/9394050/) Looks really nice to me. Could you post somewhere the code? Only code tells the truth... 😉 Regards,    Michael ---
**Author:** ![Mikael\_Brockman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Mikael\_Brockman1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Mikael_Brockman1)\ **Post date:** [1 August 2004 17:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842/20 "2004-08-01T17:23:25Z")
David Ross \ writes: > "Truth is important, knock down the trolls on thier > ass > Only good people deserve respect" > > You know. you are the biggest troll I have ever seen > on the mailing list. Really, stop. I'm not kidding. It > has all you need. Its free as well, no strings > attached. I don't know what the hell your problem is, > but stop. Below is my sample app I constructed in 15 > minutes after learning the interface. it is simple to > create than others. It is very flexible as well. text > looks great widgets work great, and it looks the same > way on windows. I tried it, works fine. THanks now > stfu lothar\_troll. For what it's worth, I appreciated his review. I don't think I'm ever going near this toolkit. It would be interesting to see you actually answer any of his issues instead of just mindlessly spamming "SEND PATCHES TROLL."   mikael [Next page](https://rubytalk.org/t/free-real-free-gui-toolkits/12842.md?page=2)