Re: Commercial GTK+ development tool

[Frank <demodevel mcleodusa net>]

> I have been musing about the possibility of a commercially developed and marketed Rapid Application 
> Development Environment (i.e. Delphi) using GTK+ (and possibly support for GNOME widgets) as the base 
> widget set. This may not be the forum to ask the following questions, but here goes anyway (I AM SURE 
> FLAMES ARE SOON TO FOLLOW :):
My thoughts are that these tools already exist in one form or another ie:

Glade - Excellent use of XML. A GTK+ program can use the actual XML file to produce the widgets dynamically 
without recompiling.  It even supports attaching widgets to functions.  Very VB like integration.  I found 
this feature excessively easy to use.

Kdevelop - Excellemt IDE environment that allows integrated debugging of programs to the point where you can 
see the variable values in a tree view.  Again, very VB type integration.  

Kylix - A fully supported rapid application development environment that is cross compatible with Delphi.  It 
is also free for non-commercial use.  The liscense for commericial use it very reasonable.  Support for 
databases and networking among other things.

Vtcl - A tcl/tk visual editor that is free and easy to use.

Labviews - Very high end, but a great application under Linux.

The list goes on and on and competition would be very nasty.  However, if you come up with a really great 
technology patent it and make a RAD program that uses it extensively (ie Labviews visual programming).

Have fun,
Frank

BTW Another approach is to make the app free, but sell the documentation.  That way you can use any and all 
open source libraries and provide paid support.  That way you get the benefits of open source and can still 
make a buck.  Of course my "dot com" company has yet to come into existance...