RPGDX > Forums > Off Topic > Okay, I just have to vent at GTK

Ninkazu · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject: Okay, I just have to vent at GTK

Has anyone used this library? No. If you can get it working, you are some sort of sorcerer. I've been trying for months, yes months, on getting a simple GTK application to compile. What's worse? About 100mb of stupid dependencies.

Even the compiled examples don't work since they depend on a deprecated element of freetype6, the FT_GlyphSlot_Embolden routine (probably more, but it only shows the first unresolved element).

The reason I wanted to use GTK was so I could make a cross-platform compatible editor for my game engine. The worst thing I think is having your work postponed for just a fucking library that is so horribly designed that it won't run even with months of effort.

Son of a bitch god damn it.

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

GTK on anthing not UNIX based is hell to set up. Assuming you're using windows, cygwin would be the way to go with GTK.

I think wxWindows may be a better cross platform solution for GUI, or even consider Java.

Nodtveidt · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:12 am Post subject:

GTK is absolute crap. wxWidgets is far better, in terms of both usability and installation...not to mention performance (GTK can be a bit sluggish, and I've seen plenty of GTK-based apps with "misfiring menus").
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tunginobi · Wandering Minstrel Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 91

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

The default theme is fugly. You can and probably should change the default theme.

Ninkazu · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject:

I'll check out wxWidgets when I get back from work. Thanks for the suggestion.

LeoDraco · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:11 pm Post subject:

Out of curiosity, what version of the library are you using? If I remember correctly, there are around two or three different varients that are currently supported by different groups. E.g. GTK+2 is becoming more popular (and has more features) than GTK+1, amongst some communities. There are also .NET bindings for GTK (referred to as GTK#) which might be easier to use, if you don't mind coding something in a .NET language.
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Ninkazu · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:06 am Post subject:

No no, I tried FINDING binaries of GTK+1.2 to no avail, as I was sure as hell not going to compile it myself. GTK+2.8.2 or whatever is the newest version wouldn't work either. Then I tried gtkmm. Nope.

wxWidgets sounds promising and looks great. I'm going to play around with that.

Bjorn · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject:

Of course there are examples of applications that got it to work. Think about GIMP, Inkscape and GAIM which all have GTK+ based Windows releases that seem to work reasonably well (at least I could use them). I wholefully agree about GTK+ being very slow on Windows though, and in some cases also a bit sluggish on Linux (especially the menus, but it seems to also depend on the application).

About the looks, indeed without the right theme GTK+ looks very ugly. However last year the Clearlooks theme was added, showing that things could look a lot better. The most recent release of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) also comes with a very nice theme.

As of which version to use. I think anybody still using 1.2 should be shot (as a matter of speech). As far as I know that thing hasn't really been changed since the year 2000, and applications using it look very ugly especially since themes like Clearlooks are only available for GTK+ 2.

I'm sure wxWidgets will perform and look better on Windows. On Linux, wxWidgets will generally take the form of a GTK+ application. This means on Linux using wxWidgets is probably a bit slower than using GTK+ directly. A well known application based on wxWidgets is aMule.

As for GTK+ on Windows, did you actually try clicking the "GTK+ for Win32" link on the GTK+ website?

LeoDraco · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:48 pm Post subject:

Hurray Clearlooks! I switched over to that at some point last year, and now would not consider using anything else.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake