[Glade-devel] enhancing glade for non-GTK tool-kits



Hey Kunal,

Yes it is definitely possible to take a UI designed in Glade and use
it in a Qt program. This is because Glade spits out a XML file
describing the UI. And then there is libglade that reads the .glade
XML file and creates the UI by making calls to the Gtk+ library.  So
its definitely possible to write a libglade for Qt which reads in
.glade files and creates a corresponding Qt interface.

I don't know if anyone's written a libglade for Qt, but its definitely
possible. One problem I see happening is that different UI systems
take slightly different approaches to layout mechanisms.

Hope that helps,
- Archit

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:10 AM, kunal at singhkunal.com
<kunal at singhkunal.com> wrote:
Hi All,

   I am an embedded system developer.
   Off recently, GUI Design has gained (and is gaining) a critical
 importance in EMbedded Systems.
   So, I have decided to familiarize (actually more than just familiarize)
 myself with at least one GUI tool-kit.

   I had two options to choose from GTK+ and Qt.
   I have decided to go for GTK+.
   I will initially focus on GUI design using Glade.

   While I am picking up on Glade, a thought keep on striking my mind. What
 if I some client asks me to design a product with Qt for him?
   I know that being a GTK+ user, my first effort should be to convince him
 that GTK+ can do as good (or ever far better than) job as Qt. But, what if
 he just wants to go for Qt (he has a stable platform based on Qt)? The only
 choice which I will have in that case will be to hire a resource who has a
 good hold on "Qt-Designer".

    I think that there should be an interface builder, which does not care
 about the underlying tool-kit (whether GTK or Qt). I have two questions:
    (a) Is it technically feasible (I guess the answer is YES).
    (b) Is any such tool already available (I guess the answer is NO).

     If (a) is YES and (b) is NO, does it makes sense to enhance glade so
 as to support the Qt as well? It will help development engineers to just
 focus on the Interface builder details, without worrying about what is the
 underlying toolkit. glade will attract more user in that case.

    I am not sure if it will be feasible to modify Glade in such a way. May
 be Glade has already come to a shape where it can not be so easily modified
 for Qt support. In that case, may be it will make sense to think of a new
 project.

     I am not sure if this is the right mailing list to post this question.
 But, I felt it is. So, I did it.

 Regards,
 Kunal
 www.singhkunal.com

 PS: Nokia was initially using GTK+ for its internet tablet development
 platform "Maemo". Now it has announced support (on the same platform) for
 Qt as well (not sure if it has something to do with Qt acquisition). In
 future more platforms might support both GTK+ And Qt. In such a scenario a
 Unified GUI builder will come handy







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