Re: [gtk-list] Re: To GTK, or not to GTK - that is the question

[Ulric Eriksson <ulric edu stockholm se>]

On 10 Nov 1998, Dave Cole wrote:

> In the commercial software market there is enormous duplication of
> effort.  They do not have the option of forking, so there is no
> sharing of code at all.  With OSS, if you want to go off in a
> different direction, you can take bits of code from other OSS
> projects.  To me this is a huge advantage, it minimises the amount of
> wasted effort while providing the basis for competition and progress.

When projects become sufficiently incompatible, "taking bits" becomes more
work than rewriting from scratch.

> Ulric> Anyone for making an Xt port of Gtk? ;-)
> 
> Go for it.
> 
> I am not sure what you think you will get out of the effort.  Sure you
> will be able to use Gtk/Xt widgets in programs with other Xt based
> widgets.  If those other Xt widget sets were worth using, you would
> not need to use Gtk widgets to flesh them out.

It would be the other way around.

Let's say you are right about Gnome being one of the competing desktop
environments; I agree with you there. Today there is no way to make an Xt
application fit in there short of a rewrite. Waste of effort, duplication
of work.

Second, Gtk/Xt would be able to use third-party widgets that can't be used
by Gtk.

Third, using Xt would get some benefits not available from Gtk, such as
proper encapsulation.

And possibly more.

Ulric