>BTW I've been meaning to ask for a while: how does xforms compare with GTK.
>It's definitely lower profile but is it better/worse/different?
As a recent convert to GTK, here are my observations:
1) the learning curve associated with GTK is much, much
steeper. There's gdk, signals, "OO-style", widgets, typecasting, etc.
2) GTK is much more flexible. It has an extremely nice automatic packing
system which almost eliminates one of the primary benefits of tools
like fdesign. It also has a model that involves chains of callbacks
for a given event, handled by the toolkit itself, rather than just one
as XForms does (although you clearly do this yourself).
3) XForms has a very superior system for handling Unix signals. There
is basically no support in GTK for this, and if you want to do
asynchronous->synchronous conversion from/in a signal handler, its
hard to do in GTK (but not impossible).
4) GTK has a very nice C++ interface (Gtk--). XForms "merely" works with C++.
5) GTK's rc-file mechanism allows easier customization by the user.
6) XForms is *much* more lightweight. Stop a typical XForms callback
in a debugger and do a stacktrace. You're probably in about 6 or 7
function calls. In GTK, its more like 12-20, and even more in Gtk--.
7) GTK is the wave of the future. Open Source ensures that.
8) XForms handling of defaults is nicer.
9) fdesign is better than glade.
10) GTK has some really excellent widgets, already written.
Thats about it. I'm pretty deep into GTK now, and it does some things
that I really like. It also is Open Source and for me this matters a lot.
I think that XForms is fantastic, but given GTK's availability, I'd
rather use an OSS system
--p
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