[Passwordsafe-devel] PasswordSafe's Windows UI frameworks

[pwsafe.org <ro...@pw...>]

Hi,

I'm at a crossroad with regards to the Windows version of PasswordSafe, and
would like to get input from the members of this list.

PasswordSafe's Windows UI is built directly upon MFC from the first
releases. This means that over time, we've enhanced MFC's functionality by
deriving classes from MFC with functionality "borrowed" from other sources.

Case in point: CPWToolbar is derived from the CToolBar MFC class, with code
added to support the PasswordSafe graphics. Problem is, new display
technology is poorly supported by CPWToolBar::CToolBar.

Micorsoft has replaced CToolBar with CMFCToolBar, which contains much of
the new functionality that was previously hand-coded in CPWToolBar. The
switch to CPWToolBar::CMFCToolBar, however, is non-trivial.

Also, the PasswordSafe Windows UI is getting a bit old, compared to today's
programs, and could use a general facelift.

So now I'm considering three options:
1. Local fix: Move from CPWToolBar::CToolBar to CPWToolBar::CMFCToolBar
2. Switch to the wxWidgets UI for Windows as the shipping UI.
3. Switch to the Qt UI framework, which appears to be much more polished
than wxWidgets, for Windows, and perhaps for Linux as well. The Qt Open
Source License is GPL 2/3, but I think that this is compatible with the
project's license (that is, I think a mixed license would work).

Thoughts, anyone?

Rony