TheoPetersen has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've got a hefty Tk app and some miscellaneous utilities that I've been working on for some time. While I like Perl/Tk in general, I'm casting an adulterous eye on Gtk and Glade.

It seems that while Gtk hasn't been around as long, it has some advantages: it has more active development, and since it isn't created for a specific scripting language it doesn't go through the awkward translation process that Perl/Tk does when ever a new version is released.

I've written some trivialities in Gtk and played with the Glade design tools, enough to start evaluating the move seriously. Have any of you worked with both enough to have an opinion on the two? Are there other GUI packages I should consider instead?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(redmist) Re: Tk, Gtk or...
by redmist (Deacon) on Feb 19, 2001 at 23:39 UTC

    I just finished with banging my head against the wall over Gtk the other day. It looks nice (better than Tk), but I found it difficult to place widgets (when will there be a Cartesian coordinate widget placing widget set?), the docs are horrific, and there are no good books on Gtk.

    Tk isn't much better IMHO. It is still a pain in the ass to use it, not many people use it, and I think it doesn't look so hot.

    So what about Glade, huh? Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted, but it is so...non-Klingon.

    redmist
    Silicon Cowboy
[reply]

      I've developed a few apps with Gtk and perl. True, the documentation is, umm, lacking to say the least. True, the widget packing is not as nice as some others. BUT, it is fairly easy to build GUI apps quickly, the perl interface is intuitive (if you know some GTK).

      You can use a simple cartesian placement system with GTKTable, BTW. It lets you lay out widgets sort of like graph paper.

      Also, Sams Teach Yourself GTK+ Programming in 21 Days by Donna Martin is quite useful. It is a book for GTK in C, but if you look at the perl examples in the tutorial , you should have no trouble translating. It is not complete (it is only "21 days", after all), but does a great job helping one get started. [Disclaimer: Donna's a friend and I'm mentioned in the Acknowledgments.]

      --john

[reply]
      I too am thinking this over. I have done some TK but am now trying Glade and using it with Gtk-Perl. So far I am leaning toward Galde/Gtk-Perl but need a good application to really try it out. Has anyone looked at the books Gtk+Gnome Application Development by Havoc Pennington or Developing Linux Applications with Gtk+ and CDk by Eric Harlow? Are either of these useful?
[reply]
Re: Tk, Gtk or...
by Anonymous Monk on Feb 20, 2001 at 00:31 UTC
    QT is the only way to go.
[reply]

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