wxWidgets Discussion Forum

On my side job as programmer, I am to write a program in C++ to convert audio files from/to various formats. Probably, this will involve building a simple GUI.

Will it be a great effort to build seperate GUIs for Mac and Windows using Cocoa and WinForms instead of a cross-platform toolkit like Qt or GTK?
(I will have to maintain a seperate Windows-version and Mac-Version anyway)
The GUI will probably be very simple and only need very basic functionality.

I always felt that native GUIs feel far more intuitive than its cross-platform brethren...

wxWidgets use native GUI.
AFAIK, (at least on MSW) Qt and GTK use their own controls but while Qt tries hard to look native , GTK does not even try.

OTOH, a multiplatform toolkit using native GUI on each platform can have its limitations stemming from the limitations of the native platform controls...

BTW, you are probably aware of that or it may not matter for you, but different toolkits use different licenses.

crossplat form lib:

• Pros
  1. crossplatform
  2. some morden controls
• Cons
  1. slow, e.g. Qt
  2. or not robust/mature enough
  3. license LGPL

native lib:

• Pros
  1. small
  2. fast
  3. robust
  4. no license problem
• Cons
  1. not crossplatform
  2. for Windows, only basic controls

For one application, more important of the GUI, more need for a native lib.
So I think the choice depends on how important you weighed the GUI part the of the application.