On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:40:29 +0100, Ian Hilliard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Sat, 25 Feb 2006 20:01:43 -0800, Rex Ballard wrote: > >> The irony is that Linux actually had easier to use tools. Tools like >> Python, Perl/TK, GTK, and Java AWT made it really easy to create really >> simple and effective GUI interfaces to Linux applications. On the >> other hand, coding GUI interfaces in C or C++ with core toolkits was a >> bit more challenging. Microsoft was also really promoting the >> dailights out of Visual Basic as the primary interface - partly to make >> sure that applications could not be easily ported to Linux. > >Back in the mid-90's, Unix had X11 and Motif. There was a clone of Motif >for Linux, but it was on very shakey ground. It was expected to be banned, >as an illegal copy, at any time. Programming X11 directly was a great >recipe for insanity. Motif was a little better, but not much. > >Microsoft came out with Visual Studio, where it was possible for a >programmer, who didn't really understand about programming graphics, to >produce reasonable looking GUIs. That sold Windows to the developers. Windows was "sold" to the developers *long* before Visual Studio, Visual C++, MFC and the like came out. >Unfortunately, Linux still lacks a tool like Visual Studio, which makes >the development of GUI software a matter of putting the bits where you >want them and then compile, all in the same IDE. I know Borland had Kylix, >which was supposed to do this, but it seems to have been still born. To >that, QT has quite a high seat cost, if you want to produce commercial >software. WxWidgets seem to insist on including GTK, which instantly makes >it GPL. > >The managers of most software houses will not release their software under >GPL, as this would permit the competition, which had not gone GPL to steal >all their know-how and gain a competitive advantage. If Linux wants to >become main-stream, this is an issue which needs to be settled, rather >sooner than later. > >Ian _______________________________________________ Gnu-misc-discuss mailing list Gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
