Cross platform arena: Qt vs wxWidgets

[Vadi]

Hello,

I need to write a small app that'll essentially consists of a bunch of buttons, text labels, and other easy GUI functions. I need the app to be cross-platform though - so Linux, Mac, & Windows. I poked about the net, and it looks like my two options are either Qt, or wxWidgets. Gtk is sorta out of the question, because the user has to install it - my app will be way smaller than gtk itself.

So, between Qt, and wxWidgets. I'm also helping to code for an oss project that's done in kde/qt, so I think qt will be the easier choice. However wxwidgets has an impressive number of apps in its belt, so it might be useful to learn too.

As you see I have no idea with which to start on. Can anyone who has had preferably experience, or knows a lot about both gui toolkits offer some advice?

Thank you.

[smartbei]

What language is the application in? For Python I would recommend using Tkinter, since that is included in Python itself.

If the application is 'way smaller' than GTK, it will also be way smaller than QT or wxWidgets, so I am not sure that that matters too much.

[Vadi]

Definitely not Python, since I don't know it at all. I'm familiar with C, learning C++ right now.

[LaRoza]

It looks like wxWidgets might be the best option for you.

[Majorix]

Isn't wxWidgets a library that also has to be separately installed on end-user's machine?

Programming GUI with C is horrible. Best of luck to you.

[LaRoza]

Isn't wxWidgets a library that also has to be separately installed on end-user's machine?

Programming GUI with C is horrible. Best of luck to you.

I wouldn't say horrible, just less convenient.

[Vadi]

Wait, wait. Yes I am a complete newbie in the GUI arena. I thought I had to learn C++ for both languages?

[Auria]

Both C++ and wx are in C++. No idea why C was mentionned

I would just recommend you try them out, read their wikipedia entries, etc.

I personnaly use wxWidgets because :
1) I use Gnome and not KDE
2) I started compilling both at the same time and wx was done compilling first

Finally, depends what you're aiming for. For cross-platform, I like wx quite a lot. Uses underlying paltform code a lot, easy to distribute. If you're not going for cross-platform though, you should also consider GTKmm (if you aim for Gnome) or pure GTK if you really like C...

[Vadi]

One of the reqs is cross-platform. Because close to 99% of the people who'll be using it are on windows. And I'm on Ubuntu. But the other requirements are basic - just socket support, and basic GUI elements.

Having somewhat of a hard time compiling wxwidgets on both platforms though, as I mentioned in the thread on the forums there :/

[LaRoza]

One of the reqs is cross-platform. Because close to 99% of the people who'll be using it are on windows. And I'm on Ubuntu. But the other requirements are basic - just socket support, and basic GUI elements.

Having somewhat of a hard time compiling wxwidgets on both platforms though, as I mentioned in the thread on the forums there :/

You should, IMO, write it in ANSI C or ANSI C++, then worry about the GUI.