David Buchanan
cross-platform native GUI frameworks are in a sad state these days...

https://old.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/uibqyu/gnome_devs_that_are_also_gtk_devs_motivation_for/i7dcadq/
GNOME Devs' (that are also GTK devs) Motivation for Cross-platform GTK4 Apps?

As a GTK developer the answer is quite simple: There is no developer maintaining portability. To have a portable toolkit, you need at least one...

reddit
Jun 26, 2023 at 9:45pmWeb
Show threadHaereJun 26, 2023
@retr0id they are crazy arrogant
Show threadDavid BuchananJun 26, 2023
@haere Who?
Show threadHaereJun 26, 2023
@retr0id gnome/gtk devs
Show threadmatzipanJun 26, 2023
@haere @retr0id lol
Show threaduwu1baJun 26, 2023
@retr0id Web technologies aren't an option for portability. It's like calling Java cross platform just because somebody else did all the heavy job of porting a VM, when the program actually requires a specific version of the specific implementation.

How do I tell them to go fuck themselves without having a Reddit account?
Show threaduwu1baJun 26, 2023
@retr0id nobody cares about GTK portability because GTK is developed primarily for GNOME now, which is mainly a Linux thing (not really sure how well GNOME works on other *nix like operating systems)

Meanwhile, the program that GTK was developed for still uses the GTK 2 branch. It's the GIMP, and, unlike GNOME, it's useful on other platforms. But the GTK is so broken now that the even GTK3 port was never finished, not to say GTK4.
Show threadDavid BuchananJun 26, 2023
@a1ba I've used gtk3 in the past for simple apps and didn't *hate* it, do you think it would be a sane choice in 2023?
Show threaduwu1baJun 26, 2023
@retr0id I don't think it makes sense since there is a GTK4.

My point is that a real complex program still can't move from GTK2, and that's kinda comical. And sad.
Show threadmatzipanJun 26, 2023
@retr0id isn't cross platform a contradiction with native? If not, then Qt fits this description.
Show threadDavid BuchananJun 26, 2023
@matzipan Doesn't seem like a contradiction to me. I want "native" look and feel, across multiple platforms (and I don't expect that to *all* happen automagically, not all design languages/idioms make sense across all platforms)
Show threadSaagar JhaJun 27, 2023
@retr0id @matzipan Sounds like you want a budget for developers who specialize in all the platforms
Show threadgudenauJun 26, 2023
@retr0id Swing can probably work on all of those platforms!
Show threadlunchyJun 26, 2023
@retr0id HTML is not a suitable replacement for GTK, Qt is the closest that exists
Show threadDavid BuchananJun 26, 2023
@lunch not suitable in what aspect?
Show threadlunchyJun 27, 2023

@retr0id HTML is not and never was designed for highly interactive, dynamic, and accessible applications, and attempts to do so show how much it sucks with how much effort it takes to re-achieve thoss

HTML was designed for documents and that's all it should be used for

Show threadDavid Mc CarthyJun 26, 2023
@retr0id there's always Tcl/TK
Show threadhaifischJun 26, 2023
@retr0id I <3 IMGUI
Show threadlj·rkJun 26, 2023

@retr0id Jup. There are two big things that bother me with HTML+CSS+JS. For one, they aren't a GUI Toolkit but... three programming languages to build a UI toolkit in, and each website brings their own. I also find it scary to need to download and run foreign Js for everything.

Then, it doesn't integrate as well. Neither technically, nor visually.

I think really the only way is to have a small frontend per-platform. I liked the NickVisionApps approach with WinUI for Windows and GDK for GNOME, although they removed the former due to being too much of a hassle.

Show threadqdotJun 26, 2023
@retr0id Flutter has been... not the worst for me, but it's still got a ton of eccentricities.
Show threadthe vessel of morgannaJun 27, 2023
@retr0id Qt is pretty much the only free native toolkit that works well across platforms, but you're getting Mostly-Qt-With-A-Little-Native-Sprinkle styling. It's less than ideal...
Show threadMOVED TO @[email protected]Jun 27, 2023
@retr0id absolutely correct. makes me sad but at least things like tauri are showing a little bit of promise for something independent of the google monopoly
Show threadEmma (IPG)Jun 27, 2023
@coolelectronics @retr0id cause it uses OS chrome and not bundled chrome
Show threadSergey BugaevJun 27, 2023
@retr0id "cross-platform native" is a bit of an oxymoron, don't you find? Unless you take "native" to only mean non-web and nothing else.
Show threadElijahJun 28, 2023
@retr0id cross-platform native GUI frameworks in Rust are in a sadder state. Electron is genuinely the only option now