[Opencfd-develop] GUI toolkits

[Daniel L. <dan...@ho...>]

Hi guys,

I've thought about using this WxWidgets (formerly WxWindows) GUI toolkit 
some time ago but my gut feelings are as follows....

1. Never used it so it’s a learning curve
2. I'm not sure how stable it is and I don’t know any commercial projects 
written in it.
3. If we agree to use Open Cascade, it has out of the box support MFC and QT 
not WxWidgets

Personally, I think at this stage platform independence is minor issue. The 
sooner we get coding the quicker we will get a prototype working. I’ve also 
looked at using Java for the GUI but I’m reluctant to start using it since 
most of the engine will be coded in C++ and JNI bridging/JVM 
incompatibilities will only cause headaches. So C++ is definitely the way to 
go!

I think we should use either QT or MFC for the GUI. Here are my pros and 
cons or both:

MFC Pros:
Stable toolkit,
Used everywhere,
Knowledge base: There are hundreds of MFC developers out there so it’ll be 
easy to recruit developers. Also, I’m currently developing an MFC 
application where I work!

MFC Cons:
You are locked into using windows

QT Pros:
Stable toolkit
Better design than MFC
Cross platform

QT Cons:
Free Licensing is only available to Linux, which effectively locks us into 
using Linux and alienates approximately 80% of our potential users.


If we get a prototype up and running using MFC then in the future we can 
port our code to Linux toolkit. For now, the most important thing is to get 
working version up and running! Let me know what you guys think.

-Dano

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