Re: [gtk-list] Why is gtk+ written in C?

[Scott Stone <sstone ume pht co jp>]

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Eric Harlow wrote:

> 
> One of the questions I got asked is "Why is gtk+ written in C?"  This
> was asked because widgets in gtk "inherit" the capability of other
> widgets and it seems natural to think of it in terms of C++.  Not
> having been through the original thinking and design, I was wondering
> if someone could give me a brief (or not so brief) reason why it's
> written in C instead of C++.

C++ is a lumbering oafish mess that eats resources and pisses people off. [1]
If you write it in C it's faster, more compact, uses less memory, and you
can incorporate it in, among other things, C++ programs.  Incorporating
C++ into C programs, however, is like trying to nail jello to a tree, in
most cases.  Qt is written in C++, and IMHO, is one of the reasons (among
several) that Qt sucks and gtk+ does not.  Writing in C assures that other
people can develop a competent C++ binding, a perl binding, a Python
binding, etc..

[1] Flame all you want, it's true :)

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@pht.com, sstone@turbolinux.com>
               <sstone@pht.co.jp>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com