4 ms·
I wonder how possible it is to design a cross-platform GUI framework that not only uses the native UI widgets of each underlying platform, but also respects eac
by linguae 2y ago
I wonder how possible it is to design a cross-platform GUI framework that not only uses the native UI widgets of each underlying platform, but also respects each platform's human interface guidelines. I'd imagine this would be very hard work, especially the part about respecting each platform's HIG, but the increased power of AI tools could potentially make this task easier. Such a framework could potentially be an appealing alternative to Electron for making cross-platform applications, with the benefit of conformity to each platform's HIG.
- swatcoder 2y agoThere have been many frameworks that offered this and some still do. But it comes at the direct expense of design discipline, branding, and user experience optimization -- all of which have been elevetated to high concern over the 15 years or so. Cross-platform "Native look and feel" currently works for some no-nonsense professional utitlies and hobby tools, but mostly makes software that's hard to sell, document, or support. Most have just opted for common widget libraries instead, and frameworks have stepped up by providing rich libraries of such widgets and prioritizing features for customizing or complementing them even further.
- criddell 2y agoI’ve been thinking more lately about a library which defines an interface for GUI elements, and then leaves implementing that up to you. Something like MVC (or some other design pattern) where the view part is an interface definition.
- torstenvl 2y agowxWidgets does this pretty well, e.g., wxSingleChoiceDialog has "OK" "Cancel" on Windows but "Cancel" "OK" on Linux/GTK.