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As it happens, I'm in the market for a cross-platform, database-driven GUI right now. I'd looked briefly at Lazarus, but the fact it still uses GTK 2 (when GTK

As it happens, I'm in the market for a cross-platform, database-driven GUI right now. I'd looked briefly at Lazarus, but the fact it still uses GTK 2 (when GTK 3 has ended development and GTK 4 is available) makes me worry about the longevity of the platform. That said, my other candidates were learning Tcl to write a Tk app (it's gotta be easier than deploying Python/Tk, right?) or biting the bullet and trying to write a single-page webapp that can talk to a local SQLite database, so maybe GTK 2 isn't the worst thing in the world.

philliphaydon 4y ago
Did you not consider .NET, or did you rule it out for a specific reason?
- JediPig 4y ago
  maui/xamarin is terrible( MAUI is xamarin renamed). It can't build a macOS desktop version. This was found out a week ago in a "shipping to production" thus forcing a certain team to say no macOS version until v2.. Which is now flutter 3.x now. Flutter better? nah.. just it has a macOS desktop option now.
  - imaltont 4y ago
    Also seems pretty hostile towards KDE's MauiKit from an ethical standpoint, as it is both older and trademarked afaik.
  - philliphaydon 4y ago
    Honestly wasn't thinking of maui... https://avaloniaui.net/ https://avaloniaui.net/ I used this when I had a mac and it worked well. I wouldn't touch maui for now.
    - rcarmo 4y ago
      Avalonia is pretty decent. I tried it a bit but didn't want to use it because I realized I was already dealing with enough .NET and wanted a change.
account-5 4y ago
I've been in a similar situation. I wanted to write a simple app for desktop and mobile, I didn't want to do a webapp. I'm looking into dart/flutter for this.
- mhoad 4y ago
  Would recommend, have been playing with it for the last year or so and generally have nothing but positive things to say about it.
- signaru 4y ago
  Are there already recommended widgets for desktop? I've read a little and it seems that you have to write your own widgets or use existing ones that don't seem comparable to something like winforms/gtk. Lazarus is attractive because of RAD, but I'm also on the look for an alternative using a more familiar language.
gattilorenz 4y ago
Did you not consider Java, or did you rule it out for a specific reason?
- rcarmo 4y ago
  I wrote enough Java and Clojure to realize neither would be lightweight enough.
  - hedgehog0 4y ago
    So Clojure for cross-platform GUI is not good enough?
    - kaba0 4y ago
      I don’t think that it is fair to say that. JavaFX is a really great, undervalued framework — and it might be even considered ultra lightweight compared to today’s Electron apps.
      - hedgehog0 4y ago
        So you think it's possible to build good businesss stand-alone cross-platform software with JavaFX?
        kaba0 4y ago
        Yes, the java platform is performant, it has a huge ecosystem for all kinds of libraries, multiple languages and JavaFX itself has many components pre-made - though not nearly as many as web technologies.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    A JavaFX app can easily run with 100MB of RAM usage, what is your target where it is not good enough?
    - 4y ago
fit2rule 4y ago
jcelerier 4y ago
Qt has support for various SQL database interop in its data models. https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/examples-sql.html https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/examples-sql.html
Sin2x 4y ago
Take a look at wxWidgets, it uses GTK3 for Linux by default.

philliphaydon 4y ago

Did you not consider .NET, or did you rule it out for a specific reason?

JediPig 4y ago
maui/xamarin is terrible( MAUI is xamarin renamed). It can't build a macOS desktop version. This was found out a week ago in a "shipping to production" thus forcing a certain team to say no macOS version until v2.. Which is now flutter 3.x now. Flutter better? nah.. just it has a macOS desktop option now.
- imaltont 4y ago
  Also seems pretty hostile towards KDE's MauiKit from an ethical standpoint, as it is both older and trademarked afaik.
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  Honestly wasn't thinking of maui... https://avaloniaui.net/ https://avaloniaui.net/ I used this when I had a mac and it worked well. I wouldn't touch maui for now.
  - rcarmo 4y ago
    Avalonia is pretty decent. I tried it a bit but didn't want to use it because I realized I was already dealing with enough .NET and wanted a change.

account-5 4y ago

I've been in a similar situation. I wanted to write a simple app for desktop and mobile, I didn't want to do a webapp. I'm looking into dart/flutter for this.

mhoad 4y ago
Would recommend, have been playing with it for the last year or so and generally have nothing but positive things to say about it.
signaru 4y ago
Are there already recommended widgets for desktop? I've read a little and it seems that you have to write your own widgets or use existing ones that don't seem comparable to something like winforms/gtk. Lazarus is attractive because of RAD, but I'm also on the look for an alternative using a more familiar language.

gattilorenz 4y ago

Did you not consider Java, or did you rule it out for a specific reason?

rcarmo 4y ago
I wrote enough Java and Clojure to realize neither would be lightweight enough.
- hedgehog0 4y ago
  So Clojure for cross-platform GUI is not good enough?
  - kaba0 4y ago
    I don’t think that it is fair to say that. JavaFX is a really great, undervalued framework — and it might be even considered ultra lightweight compared to today’s Electron apps.
    - hedgehog0 4y ago
      So you think it's possible to build good businesss stand-alone cross-platform software with JavaFX?
      - kaba0 4y ago
        Yes, the java platform is performant, it has a huge ecosystem for all kinds of libraries, multiple languages and JavaFX itself has many components pre-made - though not nearly as many as web technologies.
- kaba0 4y ago
  A JavaFX app can easily run with 100MB of RAM usage, what is your target where it is not good enough?
  - 4y ago

fit2rule 4y ago

jcelerier 4y ago

Qt has support for various SQL database interop in its data models. https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/examples-sql.html https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/examples-sql.html

Sin2x 4y ago

Take a look at wxWidgets, it uses GTK3 for Linux by default.