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Ronald
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Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Ronald »

I'm familiar with MFC, but it's not well suported by M$ now, then I choosed wxWidgets against others, because I think it's more professional, but why do they swith from wxWidgets?

1. pgAdmin
pgAdmin3: wxWidgets
pgAdmin4: Python and JS

2. VLC
The default GUI is based on Be API on BeOS, Cocoa for macOS, and Qt 4 for Linux and Windows, but all give a similar standard interface. The old default GUI was based on wxWidgets on Linux and Windows.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLC_media ... Interfaces
Last edited by Ronald on Thu Mar 15, 2018 3:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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doublemax
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by doublemax »

Regarding VLC, i found this post from 2006:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=316155
( i was too lazy to read it all ).

About pgAdmin, apparently they had some stability problems and blamed wxWidgets, but i don't know if this was the main reason. viewtopic.php?t=40030

In general and today, wxWidgets' downsides are:

- no mobile support

- native controls.
This is a big plus for many wxWidgets users, including me. But it also makes skinning an application very hard and a lot of effort. If that's important for you (like VLC), wxWidgets is not the right tool for the job

- small(er) user base. Especially open source projects depend on the collaboration of many developers and there aren't just that many wxWidgets developers around. When comparing to web technologies, i would estimate a ratio of 5000 : 1, maybe even more ;)
Use the source, Luke!
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by coderrc »

because c++ is a "difficult" programming language and as such requires a skilled programmer.

Python and JS can be used by anyone who knows how to type.
PB
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by PB »

Regarding PGAdmin 4, it seems it is no longer a traditional desktop application using OS provided GUI. From its README
Architecture
------------

pgAdmin 4 is written as a web application in Python, using jQuery and Bootstrap
for the client side processing and UI. On the server side, Flask is being
utilised.

Although developed using web technologies, pgAdmin 4 can be deployed either on
a web server using a browser, or standalone on a workstation. The runtime/
subdirectory contains a QT based runtime application intended to allow this -
it is essentially a browser and Python interpreter in one package which is
capable of hosting the Python application and presenting it to the user as a
desktop application.
Ronald
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Ronald »

doublemax wrote:Regarding VLC, i found this post from 2006:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=316155
( i was too lazy to read it all ).

About pgAdmin, apparently they had some stability problems and blamed wxWidgets, but i don't know if this was the main reason. viewtopic.php?t=40030

In general and today, wxWidgets' downsides are:

- no mobile support

- native controls.
This is a big plus for many wxWidgets users, including me. But it also makes skinning an application very hard and a lot of effort. If that's important for you (like VLC), wxWidgets is not the right tool for the job

- small(er) user base. Especially open source projects depend on the collaboration of many developers and there aren't just that many wxWidgets developers around. When comparing to web technologies, i would estimate a ratio of 5000 : 1, maybe even more ;)
I should say wxWidgets is much more professional than pgAdmin3 or VLC.
Thanks.
Ronald
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Ronald »

PB wrote:Regarding PGAdmin 4, it seems it is no longer a traditional desktop application using OS provided GUI. From its README
Architecture
------------

pgAdmin 4 is written as a web application in Python, using jQuery and Bootstrap
for the client side processing and UI. On the server side, Flask is being
utilised.

Although developed using web technologies, pgAdmin 4 can be deployed either on
a web server using a browser, or standalone on a workstation. The runtime/
subdirectory contains a QT based runtime application intended to allow this -
it is essentially a browser and Python interpreter in one package which is
capable of hosting the Python application and presenting it to the user as a
desktop application.
In production usage, using it in a web browser is more convenient, because a) no installation is needed b) not used frequently
In development/study usage, a native one, like pgAdmin3, wins anyway.
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by eranon »

Well, you focused on two apps, but there're a lot more of wxWidgets-based software around, Ronald:

https://www.wxwidgets.org/about/screenshots/
https://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Project_List
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... _wxWidgets

... and all those (a lot) that are not listed there...

This said, I don't know why I added this message since you're already conviced :mrgreen:
[Ind. dev. - wxWidgets 3.0/3.1 under "Win 7 64-bit, TDM64-GCC" + "OS X 10.9, LLVM Clang"]
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by ONEEYEMAN »

Hi,
In addition to all those it was used by the one of US Government projects and maybe even more than one.
Unfortunately because of lack of mobile (Android) and web application support we are switching to QT/Java.

However I am still going to be around. ;-)

Thank you.
Ronald
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Ronald »

eranon wrote:Well, you focused on two apps, but there're a lot more of wxWidgets-based software around, Ronald:

https://www.wxwidgets.org/about/screenshots/
https://wiki.wxwidgets.org/Project_List
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... _wxWidgets

... and all those (a lot) that are not listed there...

This said, I don't know why I added this message since you're already conviced :mrgreen:
I have used several application with open source GUI lib, I'm not caring about the GUI lib then. When I'm choosing a lib to learn, I look back on the experiences, find that wxWidgets achieves better experience than Qt.
For example:
wxWidgets: pgAdmin3 / Code::Blocks / WxFormBuilder
Qt: calibre

Anyway I prefer to see some insights, and still think wxWidgets is more professional than Qt.

Though I like native API most, M$ is doing something to it, for example, a) UpdateWindow's doc is available online only b) F1 could not always (in fact except the first time) switch to the Help Viewer window.

I'll choose MFC or Windows API this time, it's challenging, however it could achieve the best result, potentially.
Last edited by Ronald on Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:40 pm, edited 7 times in total.
Ronald
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Ronald »

ONEEYEMAN wrote:Hi,
In addition to all those it was used by the one of US Government projects and maybe even more than one.
Unfortunately because of lack of mobile (Android) and web application support we are switching to QT/Java.

However I am still going to be around. ;-)

Thank you.
For mobile, I'll choose native API, because
  • GUI for a small screen is simple, so easy for coding
  • If it's easy to use native API, why not
  • No license problem
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Re: Why do they switch from wxWidgets?

Post by Nunki »

Since I use both wxWidgets and Postgresql, PGadmin was my tool for administrative tasks. However such type of tool is best a desktop tool for many reasons. It was a pity that the development group did not query the community of PGadmin users on their plan to change this C++ desktop application to a webbased tool. Sure it could run on your pc, after installing a webserver on your pc. Not a very nice solution. So lot of people started lokking for another tool. I ended up with DBeaver, a java tool that connects to numerous databases. So for me PGadmin was over and done with. And many with me dropped PGadmin. Which is a pity. It had it's flaws, but they could have rewritten it based on the latest wxWidgets. But they clearly stated that is was easier to find coders familiar with web/scripting languages than with C++. I'm curious how many users turned away and are now using other database tools, or even dropped postgresql alltogether ?

Nunki
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