1. Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
Hi,
I'm starting a relatively large project in Euphoria that will be run strictly on
Windows machines. I'm wondering whether it is better to stick with Win32Lib or
whether there are advantages of going with wxEuphoria that I might be missing.
It seems to me that there are many more example programs for Win32Lib and
therefore, in the absence of looking to run the program cross-platform, the only
reason to go with wxEuphoria would be if there are significant capabilities that
are missing from Win32Lib.
Hence, I'm leaning towards Win32Lib but willing to hear reasons why I should use
wxEuphoria instead.
If somebody could let me know their opinion or where to look for a comparison
(if this has already been discussed, I couldn't find it), that would be great.
Thanks
Mike
2. Re: Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
For some reason, when I initially searched this forum, I didn't find the
messages comparing Win32Lib and wxEuphoria.
Based on what I've read, with an application that is intended solely for Windows
machines, sticking with Win32Lib seems to make the most sense.
So I'll change my question a bit: is there any reason to re-visit that issue
based on the latest incarnation of wxEuphoria (0.11) or the underlying new
version of wxWidgets (2.8)?
Thanks
Mike
3. Re: Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
My $.035 - adjusted for inflation...
I have an application that has acheived a fair amount of success in a pretty
niche market (IBM midrange computers) so after 4 years of history with supporting
this product, I feel I have an honest opinion on your question.
When I started the project, Win32Lib was by far the best library for Windows
applications. And what it didn't supply someone else stepped in and filled the
gap.
That being said, I wish wxEuhporia had been around when I started. Why? Let me
say that portability is not even a consideration. What I needed was the add-ons.
Namely grid controls and automatic sizing/positioning for window layout. What
tends to happen here is someone writes an add-on library that provides what
Win32Lib doesn't and after a while they move on and the library goes stagnant.
They still answer questions from time-to-time but new releases cease. I'm not
bashing those people because I know that their contribution is non-gratus and
life usually comes first. :)
I like wxEuphoria because wxControls is a very active product and some great
applications have been written with it and new features are added on a regular
basis. The other reason is Matt's continuing work on his piece. Matt has been
around longer than me and he continues to make the library better and he's very
active here. Sorry to inflate your head, Matt.
Now I'm "stuck" (for lack of a better word) with Win32Lib. I don't have the
time to re-write using wxEuphoria. If I start a new project, I'm going to use
wxEuhporia. Of course, this means that Matt can never leave! Matt, we know
where you are....don't even think about going!
Jonas Temple
http://www.innovativesys.net
4. Re: Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
Mike777 wrote:
>
> For some reason, when I initially searched this forum, I didn't find the
> messages
> comparing Win32Lib and wxEuphoria.
>
> Based on what I've read, with an application that is intended solely for
> Windows
> machines, sticking with Win32Lib seems to make the most sense.
>
> So I'll change my question a bit: is there any reason to re-visit that issue
> based on the latest incarnation of wxEuphoria (0.11) or the underlying new
> version
> of wxWidgets (2.8)?
I'll add my biased view (although I've been a developer on both libraries).
There are some additional features in wxEuphoria, such as regular expressions,
built in sizers--there is a 3rd party lib for use with win32lib, but in
my experience, the wxWidgets sizers are superior. There are probably other
things, some of which might be important for your project.
There is still a lot of wxWidgets functionality that wxEuphoria hasn't tapped
yet. It's usually a matter of adding some wrappers to wxEuphoria, which is
actually pretty simple these days (assuming there's nothing too complicated
going on).
Perhaps the biggest advantage is that wxEuphoria supports unicode. v0.12
(probably to come out soon) added some capabilities to convert between
UTF8 and the native format (UTF16, I believe) used by wxWidgets.
Matt
5. Re: Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
Matt Lewis wrote:
>
> Mike777 wrote:
> >
> > For some reason, when I initially searched this forum, I didn't find the
> > messages
> > comparing Win32Lib and wxEuphoria.
> >
> > Based on what I've read, with an application that is intended solely for
> > Windows
> > machines, sticking with Win32Lib seems to make the most sense.
> >
> > So I'll change my question a bit: is there any reason to re-visit that issue
> > based on the latest incarnation of wxEuphoria (0.11) or the underlying new
> > version
> > of wxWidgets (2.8)?
>
> I'll add my biased view (although I've been a developer on both libraries).
To reply to myself, I'd also like to add that Win32Lib has a far superior
IDE. Having said that, however, if you learn the magic of using sizers,
you may not miss the graphical layout.
Matt
6. Re: Win32Lib or wxEuphoria
Matt Lewis wrote:
>
> Mike777 wrote:
> >
> > For some reason, when I initially searched this forum, I didn't find the
> > messages
> > comparing Win32Lib and wxEuphoria.
> >
> > Based on what I've read, with an application that is intended solely for
> > Windows
> > machines, sticking with Win32Lib seems to make the most sense.
> >
> > So I'll change my question a bit: is there any reason to re-visit that issue
> > based on the latest incarnation of wxEuphoria (0.11) or the underlying new
> > version
> > of wxWidgets (2.8)?
>
> I'll add my biased view (although I've been a developer on both libraries).
>
> There are some additional features in wxEuphoria, such as regular expressions,
> built in sizers--there is a 3rd party lib for use with win32lib, but in
> my experience, the wxWidgets sizers are superior. There are probably other
> things, some of which might be important for your project.
>
From 70.1 onward, the registerNotification() routine has been upgraded so as to
do what it had been supposed to do, ie forward events to other controls and have
some control over these event forwardings. Using this, you can send resize
notifications to any (child) control, for example.
One thing I plan (not for 70.3) is to allow relative dimensions to be evaluated
again when anything they use in their definition formula changes. A new style
flag will be added, so that you can choose between static (current course) and
dynamic dimensions/positions for a control.
I like the idea that you don't have to specify absolue dimnsions for controls
too, because it's the OS job actually - that's how Vision 2 works (GUI for
Eiffel). However, this is alien to how win32lib has worked from day one, so that
cannot be changed drastically, and will be fun to add.
I think 70.3 will close part of he gap in terms of capabilities. There is still
plenty of things that would be useful to add - but is there demand for them in
the world of simple programming? I've never seen much request for layered window
support or custom control drawing (which you need to add a vertical bitmap bar to
menus for instance).
CChris
> There is still a lot of wxWidgets functionality that wxEuphoria hasn't tapped
>
> yet. It's usually a matter of adding some wrappers to wxEuphoria, which is
> actually pretty simple these days (assuming there's nothing too complicated
> going on).
>
> Perhaps the biggest advantage is that wxEuphoria supports unicode. v0.12
> (probably to come out soon) added some capabilities to convert between
> UTF8 and the native format (UTF16, I believe) used by wxWidgets.
>
> Matt
