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For anyone needing a simple and fast cross-platform toolkit for C++, FLTK is really good. It is easy to build and statically link only the parts you need, and t

by csb6 6y ago

For anyone needing a simple and fast cross-platform toolkit for C++, FLTK is really good. It is easy to build and statically link only the parts you need, and the API/widget selection is pretty good. It looks a little old school/non/native, but it has been useful for me.

Rochus 6y ago
FLTK is just very spartan compared to e.g. Qt; from my point of view it is only useful for very simple GUIs; I hardly have any applications anymore that do not need item views or rich text.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  If you want a halfway house, there's the FOX Toolkit. http://fox-toolkit.org/ http://fox-toolkit.org/ It's not so active these days, admittedly.
  - Rochus 6y ago
    Well, there is also Tcl/Tk and some others, but they are all at most half as powerful as Qt. An interesting alternative could be Flutter; however, you have to write (at least) the GUI in Dart, which is not everyone's cup of tea.
    - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
      TCL is interpreted, so presumably it's not as lightweight as FLTK and FOX. I don't imagine Flutter is nearly as lightweight either.
      - Rochus 6y ago
        Tk is just a shared library accessible by any compiled language; there are many C/C++ cross-platform applications using it; it was actually also the first GUI toolkit used by Python; it's true that it includes Tcl which is a scripting language, but that doesn't matter much. It's nearly as lightweight as FLTK and Fox toolkit. Applications AOT compiled with the Flutter SKD are surprisingly lean (i.e. compared to Node/Electron) and not much larger than Qt applications.
amelius 6y ago
Does it support mobile? I think "cross-platform" should include mobile.
- progre 6y ago
  That definition of cross-platform is a bit too narrow for my taste. I think a more reasonable definition of "cross-platform" would be "covers 2 or more roughly equal platforms". I mean no-one expects an app developed for a windows workstation to run (and be usable) on an andriod phone, even if it used a cross platform framework. But most would expect to be able to run it on linux or mac.

by csb6 6y ago

Rochus 6y ago

FLTK is just very spartan compared to e.g. Qt; from my point of view it is only useful for very simple GUIs; I hardly have any applications anymore that do not need item views or rich text.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
If you want a halfway house, there's the FOX Toolkit. http://fox-toolkit.org/ http://fox-toolkit.org/ It's not so active these days, admittedly.
- Rochus 6y ago
  Well, there is also Tcl/Tk and some others, but they are all at most half as powerful as Qt. An interesting alternative could be Flutter; however, you have to write (at least) the GUI in Dart, which is not everyone's cup of tea.
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    TCL is interpreted, so presumably it's not as lightweight as FLTK and FOX. I don't imagine Flutter is nearly as lightweight either.
    - Rochus 6y ago
      Tk is just a shared library accessible by any compiled language; there are many C/C++ cross-platform applications using it; it was actually also the first GUI toolkit used by Python; it's true that it includes Tcl which is a scripting language, but that doesn't matter much. It's nearly as lightweight as FLTK and Fox toolkit. Applications AOT compiled with the Flutter SKD are surprisingly lean (i.e. compared to Node/Electron) and not much larger than Qt applications.

amelius 6y ago

Does it support mobile? I think "cross-platform" should include mobile.

progre 6y ago
That definition of cross-platform is a bit too narrow for my taste. I think a more reasonable definition of "cross-platform" would be "covers 2 or more roughly equal platforms". I mean no-one expects an app developed for a windows workstation to run (and be usable) on an andriod phone, even if it used a cross platform framework. But most would expect to be able to run it on linux or mac.