From: jmadam (John M. Adams)

Subject: Re: Multi-platform GUIs, CBind, and Sound libraries...

Date: 2004-1-29 15:00

Rodolphe Saugier <ircam.fr at Rodolphe.Saugier> writes:

> Here at IRCAM we are experimenting strategies to port OpenMusic, > a visual programming environment dedicated to music, from MCL (Mac) > to ACL. Other visual tools will be built on top of OpenMusic, too. > (My colleague Jean Bresson already contacted people at Franz concerning > this subject) > > As a part of this process, I have some naïve questions to submit to you all: > > - What multi-platform GUI library would you recommend ? (working at > least on Win32 & MacOSX) > We would be particularly interested by advanced capabilities ( > sprites, bitmap, "beautiful" widgets, etc...)... > > - Is CBind a sufficiently mature tool to be used to access C/C++ > libraries on > Win32 and MacOSX platforms ? My idea would be to use it to access > sound & possibly GUI libraries.
cbind is a very good thing. But it isn't magic. You might have to fiddle with its output when rebinding something complex. Having read the sources for wxWindows and GTK+, I would look at GTK+. Many think highly of wxWindows. But, in my opinion, GTK+ is better engineered. I have no experience programming GTK+ on Windows or Mac, but it is available in some form. Allegro 6.2 ships with an experimental cbinded GTK+ interface tested on Linux. I spent several weeks programming it. It seems to work. I also found the GTK+ documentation and code much easier to read than wxWindows. Consider asking on comp.lang.lisp. This is a pretty inert mailing list. -- John M. Adams