Gtk+ vs Qt language bindings

Question

Put shortly: For those familiar with language bindings in Qt and Gtk+. E.g. python and ruby. Are there any quality or capability difference?

More background: I know C++ and Qt very well. Minimal experience with Gtk+. I know C++ is not ideal for language bindings due to the lack of a well defined ABI (application binary interface). I also read that Gtk+ was designed to be bound to other languages. So I wonder how this manifets itself in practice. Are the Gtk+ bindings better maintained or work better in some way than their Qt counterparts?

I am presently quite interested in the Go language, and they have started developing Gtk+ bindings. However C++ bindings is far away. It makes me wonder whether learning Gtk+ is worth it.

Answer 1

there are C++ gtk+ bindings. Google for gtkmm.

Answer 2

I have worked with both PyQt and PyGTK and I would say they're both regularly mantained and synched with their parent frameworks. However, and this is completely subjective, I found more rewarding working with PyGTK than with PyQt, even if I hadn't previously written any code using GTK. If you know well Qt, go with Qt though.

Answer 3

I think that GTK bindings are older than Qt ones (and so a bit more mature) but they are both usable and your previous knowledge of Qt should be the main factor in your choice.

I developed small GUIs using both Qt and GTK with their python bindings and found the two equivalent. Some regrets though on the PyQt bindings with Qt container (QVector, ...) that are not translated into regular python data structure and thus add a bit of complexity to the code. I didn't recall the same issues using PyGTK.

Answer 4

I've used GTK and Qt in C++ and also PyGTK and PyQt in Python quite extensively.

Qt beats GTK hands down - its a much more flexible, modern and clean API. GTK is also lacking some features that are important to me. From a framework point of view, I'd recommend Qt.

As for langauge bindings (I can only speak about Python, since I've never used the Ruby equivalents), I think PyGTK (using Glade and a wrapper like Padraig Bradys libglade) make GUI programming insanely easy and fun. However, if you can GPL your software (or pay the license fee), then PyQt is also a good option, and while not quite as friendly as PyGTK + Glade (in that with GTK you can define your UI in Glade as a separate XML file, so you can tweak the UI without touching code; in Qt if you want to use QtDesigner, you have to generate code using uic, if I remember correctly) the API itself is really really nice to use and mirrors the Qt frameworks clean design very closely.

Over all, I'd probably recommend using PyQt over PyGTK, but I may be biased since I much prefer Qt over GTK nowadays, though you could try both out and see which you prefer - they are both almost trivial to get working.

If you are looking for a great book on PyQt, I'd recomment Rapid GUI Programming qith Python and Qt.

To summarize: IMHO Qt beats GTK in both quality and capability. Both PyGTK and PyQt are of excellent quality and capability mirrors the underlying framework, though PyGTK can load Glade xml files.