RE: Programmer's criticism of GTK2

[Harring Figueiredo <harringf yahoo com>]

  I have been "trying" to use GTK since 1.2. I find it really easy to use and
extremelly easy to build and install.
  GTK2 is now getting a little too big ( ATK and Pango ) are adding new
features that would have been better added thruogh module - or even optional
compilation.
(I got a little frustrated when I had to build it and the entire buld, packages
after packages , kept asking me to  intall something else that I did not have.)
I undrestand that if we want to build powerful GUI's it is -almost- impossible
to keep it too simple. -"Keep is simple, but not simpler than it should be"
Einstein").
  Even though GTK2 is getting a bit complex, anyone trying to look for
simplicity should try to program in JAVA SWING - The language of the future --
Then one will realize that for every stinking button press event you will need
to create at least one class and implement 300 listeners/interfaces -- and
needless to say -- it will not give you the same result on different platforms
-- Did I say that JAVA is write once, run anywhere -- run anywhere means --
anywhere your competer can go .. not any platform.

  On the other hand, we have GTK written in C and can run in any platform my
little program shop can have. And we can now write GUI for Unix's without even
knowing what a X server is. (Of course, Windoze is on the list).

  We should not only be greateful to the develpers and the testers and all the
others directly and indirectly involved in this project, but also give some
hands to these hackers for making our lives easier.

  Of course, we should also be thankful to people like Havoc for not hasitating
for one second to answer the most simple question ( How do I compile
HelloWorld.c in GTK ?) to the most complex ones.-- over and over again.

  But whining is always better than doing something constructive.

   ---stepping out of my soap box...

Harring

  
--- martyn 2 russell bt com wrote:
> Its like this: there is a scale of complexity with everything.  If you make
> it too complex it makes it difficult to do simple things, and similarly if
> you make something too simple it is difficult to write something complex.
> Gtk 2 gets that "scale" in my opinion just right.
>
> Gtk 2 makes simple things easy and complex things possible, and that's the
> way it should be.
>
> Martyn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carlos Pereira [mailto:carlos pehoe civil ist utl pt] 
> Sent: 15 March 2002 12:54
> To: gtk-app-devel-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Programmer's criticism of GTK2
>
> <flame>
>
> > How simple do you want it? Gtk isn't exactly hard to get into; if you find
> > the interface difficult I would suggest you're not fit to write software.
>
> This is the most brain dead statement I have seen for a long time.
>
> The guy to whom you replied this perl, is using Gtk for at least 2 years,
> and often has helped in this list. He is not exactly a newbie trying to
> compile helloworld.c
>
> At page 293 of Expert C Programming, written by Sun kernel hacker
> Peter van der Linden, you can read this citation:
> "C++ will do for C what Algol-68 did for Algol" - David L. Jones
>
> and then the footnote explains:
> "Algol-68 was a monster-sized language that built on the small and
> successful Algol-60. It was hard to understand (it had a formal 
> specification written in denotational semantics), hard to implement,
> and hard to use. But it was 'very powerful' or so everyone said. Algol-68
> effectively kiled Algol-60 by replacing it, before self-destructing in 
> a wave of impracticality. Some people see parallels between the two Algols 
> and the two C's."
>
> I am sure there was people then saying as you:
> "How simple do you want it? Algol-68 isn't exactly hard to get into; 
> if you find the language difficult I would suggest you're not fit 
> to write software."
>
> </flame>
>
> I certainly wish all the best to Gtk, and I certainly thank all the
> great hackers who did their best for Gtk during the last 3 years, 
> I am still planning to use Gtk2.0 despite the huge increase in libraries,
> size and complexity, but we must stay focused: simplicity is
> good, complexity is bad.
>
> Carlos
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