What is the best user interface toolkit ever developed? It should display usable interfaces that look nice and are easy to modify, a good API for the programmer, a good events model, etc.
What makes your choice great?
A:
Windows Presentation Foundation - UI being taken to such a powerful and customizable level is awesome.
Update after your question revision - Storyboards and template-based customization, specifically are why I choose WPF.
routeNpingme
2009-02-11 16:25:45
How can it be all time best if it only works on windows?
Bryan Oakley
2009-02-11 18:45:17
Windows holds 88% market share. My opinion would be different if Ubuntu held 88% market share. :)
routeNpingme
2009-02-11 19:23:54
A:
Windows Forms.
Why?
- comprehensive set of API covering wide variety of controls, timers, threading
- Ability to hook into OS messages. Message model far advanced than AWT
- Faster than JWT
- Compiles to native code (virtual mach not relevant if you are limited to Windows OS)
- Ability to create apps with same look and feel of Microsoft apps like Office etc
- Finally all the above complemented by Visual Studio IDE
Microsoft might be lagging behind in the Web domain, but no one has got it better for Windows. Apple might say their interface is better, but when it comes to API it is Windows: Just look at how many people use WinForms.
Sesh
2009-02-11 16:34:48
The question is not about the platform. It is just a comparison between AWT and WinForm and the winner is WinForms even if you take the platform thing out of equation.
Sesh
2009-02-11 16:50:06
True. At least you did not compared with X11 protocol. Otherwise it would look too obviously unfair.
artificialidiot
2009-02-11 17:12:39
@Sesh I originally gave AWT and WinForms as example answers that I thought would be universally execrated, not because I thought people would think I was asking people to compare and choose between only those 2.
joeforker
2009-02-11 19:51:20
A:
I really like WPF/Silverlight, but I have to be honest I like JavaFX better. It has the richness of WPF, and will run in browser or out of browser with the same code. If they get Silverlight to run on both the desktop and browser I think I will call it a tie.
javelinBCD
2009-02-11 16:35:51
A:
Easy, loads of database support, x86 or .Net. Also it was codenamed "VB Killer" which - although never realised - was the noblest of goals.
Robert Grant
2009-02-11 16:41:57
+3
A:
There are a lot of good ones in various types of applications with quite varied strengths and weaknesses: WPF, AIR, YUI, Qt, wxWidgets, Ext, etc. That's why I'm afraid people will pick one of the two choices you offered, or you'll end up with as many different toolkits as you get answers! :)
I'd have to say the one that really stands out is Qt from Trolltech. Well-designed, mature, cross-platform, integrated into Windows and VS. However, if you want to live in the cutting-edge, Windows-only world, use WPF.
When all the sizzle is said and done, with AIR/WPF and such, and all the whiz-bang demos that never turn into real apps, what really matters to a programmer is having a solid, well-supported toolkit.
alphadogg
2009-02-11 16:52:52
Nooo.... Carbon all the way! Ignoring that there will never be a 64-bit Carbon...
R. Bemrose
2009-02-11 19:02:59
+4
A:
Qt. no contest.
- C++
- multiplatform
- really really fast
- flexible licensing
- very active development
- readable sources
- easy to master
Javier
2009-02-11 17:00:12
A:
HTML/CSS/JS
- Works on the majority of platforms under the sun.
- Virtually everybody and their grandmother on the internet knows how to use it in various levels.
- Doesn't need anything more than a browser and a text editor to get started.
- Overwhelming amount of examples (both good and bad).
- All kinds of libraries to make it more palatable for every taste.
- Still evolving like crazy.
Seriously, the combination IS a toolkit for applications on the desktop. You can use it in the form of HTA applications on the Windows, XUL applications on the platforms where Firefox runs, and Adobe AIR, soon Palm Pre, Jobs once was serious that iPhone SDK was Safari. And of course, you don't really need users install anything if you host your own application elsewhere.
artificialidiot
2009-02-11 17:00:21
although it's still far from what's easily doable on real apps, it's something that should be always considered first; especially when Google Gears is an option.
Javier
2009-02-11 18:28:52
If you're mostly concerned about end user productivity, web apps should be considered dead last. The user experience on the web can't come close to desktop applications IMO. Productivity isn't always the primary consideration, of course, so web apps have their place.
Bryan Oakley
2009-02-11 18:47:15
Unfortunately, there are opposite answers depending on whether you mean user productivity or developer/provider productivity.
le dorfier
2009-02-11 19:50:32
it also depends heavily on the user commitment: if you want to develop a 'productivity' app, webapps are among the worst. for 'just use it' they're the best.
Javier
2009-02-12 01:52:17
A:
The only UI toolkit I've ever worked with is IT Mill Toolkit (in case non-desktop toolkits were allowed, too).
Henrik Paul
2009-02-11 18:41:05