List of widget toolkits

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit] Low-level widget toolkits

[edit] Integrated in the operating system

Mac OS X uses Cocoa. Mac OS9 and Mac OS X use Carbon for 32 bit applications.
The Windows API used in Microsoft Windows.

[edit] As a separate layer on top of the operating system

The X Window System contains primitive building blocks, called Xt or "Intrinsics", but they are used only by Motif and Xaw, most other toolkits such as GTK+ or Qt bypass them and use xlib.
The Amiga OS Intuition was formerly present in the Amiga Kickstart ROM and integrated itself with a medium-high level widget library which invoked the Workbench Amiga native GUI. Since Amiga OS 2.0, Intuition.library became disk based and object oriented. Also Workbench.library and Icon.library became disk based, and could be replaced with similar third-party solutions.

[edit] High-level widget toolkits

[edit] On Amiga OS

BOOPSI (Basic Object Oriented Programming System for Intuition) was introduced with OS 2.0 and enhanced Intuition with a system of classes in which every class represents a single widget or describes an interface event. This led to an evolution in which third-party developers each realised their own personal systems of classes.
Magic User Interface (MUI): system of Amiga Widget Classes.
Zune (GUI toolkit) is an object-oriented GUI toolkit which is part of the AROS project and nearly an Open Source clone, at both an API and look and feel level, of Magic User Interface.
ClassAct: another system of Amiga Widget Classes which evolved in AmigaOS 3.9 and 4.0 into Reaction based GUIs.
ReAction: Evolution of the ClassACT system.
Triton
BGUI
StormWIZARD: IFF-based, developed by Thomas Mittelsdorf
Feelin: XML-based, developed by Olivier Laviale
Cygnix AmigaOS version of the X11 reduced engine Cygwin
ScalOS replacement for AmigaOS Workbench, has its own system of Widgets
GTK MUI wrapper which wraps GTK system of widgets with existing AmigaOS MUI toolkit for AROS and MorphOS
Cairo for AmigaOS 4.0

[edit] On Macintosh

Cocoa - used in Mac OS X (see also Aqua).
MacApp Macintosh framework.
MacZoop Macintosh C++ framework.
PowerPlant Macintosh framework.

[edit] On Microsoft Windows

The Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), used by most developers^{[citation needed]} on the Microsoft Windows platform.
The Windows Template Library (WTL), a template-based extension to ATL and a replacement of MFC
SmartWin++, an MFC/WTL replacement using templates based on STL and Boost
The Object Windows Library, Borland's alternative to MFC.
The Visual Component Library (VCL) is Borland's toolkit used in its C++ Builder and Delphi products.
Windows Forms is .NET's set of classes that handle GUI controls. In the cross-platform Mono implementation, it is an independent toolkit, implemented entirely in managed code (not wrapping the Windows API, which doesn't exist on other platforms) ^[1].
The Windows Presentation Foundation is the graphical subsystem of the .NET Framework 3.0. User interfaces can be created in WPF using any of the CLR languages (e.g. C#) or with the XML based language XAML. Microsoft Expression Blend is a visual GUI builder for WPF.
The Key Objects Library (KOL) is a set of objects to develop small 32-bit Windows GUI applications (start under 30Kb) using Delphi (but without VCL) or Free Pascal. It is distributed free of charge, with source code. There is also a version of KOL for Windows CE.

[edit] On Unix, under the X Window System

Note that the X Window system was originally primarily for Unix-like operating systems, but it now runs on Microsoft Windows as well using, for example, Cygwin, so some or all of these toolkits can also be used under Windows.

Xaw, the Project Athena widget set for the X Window System.
Motif used in the Common Desktop Environment.
Lesstif, an open source (LGPL) version of Motif.
InterViews, a toolkit written in C++.
IRIS ViewKit by Silicon Graphics (and its free implementation Hungry ViewKit) is a C++ class library for developing Motif applications.

[edit] Cross-platform

[edit] Based on OpenGL

GLUI is a GLUT-based C++ user interface library which provides controls such as buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, and spinners to OpenGL applications.
Clutter is an open source software library for creating fast, visually rich and animated graphical user interfaces.
NUI is based on 3D rendered dynamic layouts. Build your visual interface as a composition of widgets and behaviors.

[edit] Based on Flash

Adobe Flash allows creating widgets running in most web browsers and in several mobile phones.
Adobe Flex provides high level widgets for building web user interfaces. Flash widgets can be used in Flex.
Flash and Flex widgets will run without a browser in the forthcoming Adobe AIR runtime environment.
The Free Software reimplementation of Flash, GNU Gnash, which is under development, can also run Flash widgets outside of a browser.
Independant softwares vendors propose to embed the flash application into an executable: MDM Zinc, mProjector and more. Those solutions are cross-platform (depending on the vendors solution).

[edit] Based on XML

GladeXML with GTK+
Trixul A lightweight XML/JavaScript/C++ toolkit, inspired by XUL, for use in desktop applications, and providing cross-platform, native support for Cocoa, .NET Forms, and Gtk+.
XAML with Silverlight
XML User Interface A Java and XML toolkit for building Rich Internet Applications.
XUL

[edit] Based on AJAX

Main article: JavaScript library

General

Acid.JS
AJAX Calendar.NET developer control
Backbase AJAX
Dojo Toolkit
jQuery
TIBCO General Interface, is a rich AJAX GUI components that include vector charts and is now also available through an open source BSD license.

RIAs

Framework

Cooee, is a Java-based Web UI Framework. Part of the Karora Open Source Project.
Echo
IT Mill Toolkit
Mootools
Qooxdoo Could be understood as Qt for the Web
Script.aculo.us
Swing (Java)

Dynamic

Dhtmlx Toolkit

Resource-based

Google Web Toolkit
Pyjamas
FBML －　Facebook Markup Language
Web Application Markup Language
Yahoo! UI Library, or simply YUI
Ext JS

[edit] Based on SVG

airWRX is an application framework that runs from a USB flash drive, and turns its PC host and other nearby PCs into a multi-screen, web-like digital workspace.
SPARK (software)] is an application framework built upon SVG.

[edit] Based on Java

The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) is Sun Microsystems' original widget toolkit for Java applications. It typically uses another toolkit on each platform on which it runs.
Swing is a richer widget toolkit supported since J2SE 1.2 as a replacement for AWT widgets. Swing is a lightweight toolkit, meaning it does not rely on native widgets.
OpenSwing
The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a native widget toolkit for Java that was developed as part of the Eclipse project. SWT uses a standard toolkit for the running platform (such as the Windows API or GTK+) underneath.
Qt Jambi, the official Java binding to Qt from Trolltech.

[edit] Based on C or C++ (including bindings to other languages)

Agar is a set of cross-platform graphics libraries which includes a comprehensive GUI toolkit. Agar supports OpenGL rendering as well as simple frame buffer displays with SDL.
CEGUI, open source (MIT License), configurable GUI designed for game development.
CLX (Component Library for Cross-platform), used with Borland's Delphi, C++ Builder, and Kylix, for producing cross-platform applications. It is based on Qt, wrapped in such a way that its programming interface is similar to that of the VCL toolkit.
dlib C++ Library, for creating simple cross-platform graphical applications.
Enlightened Widget Library is a high-level toolkit primarily developed to work on the Enlightenment window manager (BSD license).
FLTK, open source (LGPL), cross-platform toolkit designed to be small and fast.
FOX toolkit, open source (LGPL), cross-platform toolkit.
GLUI, a very small toolkit written with the GLUT library.
GTK+, open source (LGPL), primarily for the X Window System, ported to and emulated under other platforms; used in the GNOME, Rox, LXDE and XFCE desktop environments. The Windows port has support for native widgets.
IUP, open source (MIT), a minimalist GUI toolkit in ANSI C for MS Windows, UNIX and Linux.
Juce provides GUI and widget set with the same look and feel in Microsoft Windows, X Window Systems, and Mac OS X
Lgi (software) (LGPL), Ports for Windows, Cygwin, Linux (Xlib), BeOS and Mac OS X (in progress). Compiles with VC++ 6 and 7, gcc 3 & 4 and XCode 1.5. Cross platform and native widgets (including stand alone HTML engine), graphical dialog designer, translatable Unicode applications, IDE, and small binaries.
Qt, open source (QPL, GPL, LGPL) available under Unix and Linux (with X Window), MS Windows, Mac OS X, embedded Linux and Windows CE systems; also available in commercial versions under these platforms; used in KDE.
Quinta, a lightweight application framework with GUI widgets (BSD license)^[2]
Tk, a widget set accessed from Tcl and other high-level script languages (interfaced in Python as Tkinter).
TnFOX, open source (LGPL), a portability toolkit.
Ultimate++ is a free Win32/X11 application framework bundled with an IDE (BSD license)
The Visual Component Framework (VCF) is an open source (BSD license) C++ framework project.
wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows), open source (relaxed LGPL), abstracts toolkits across several platforms for C++, Python , Perl, Ruby and Haskell.
YAAF, open source (YAAF Open Source License), designed to facilitate creating cross-platform applications.
XForms, the Forms Library for X
XVT, Extensible Virtual Toolkit
GraphApp [1]

[edit] Based on Pascal

VGScene is a suite of native Delphi/C++Builder/Lazarus components to develop rich applications for desktop like Adobe AIR or Microsoft WPF.
IP Pascal uses a graphics library built on top of standard language constructs. Also unusual for being a procedural toolkit that is cross platform (no callbacks or other tricks), and is completely upward compatible with standard serial input and output paradigms. Completely standard programs with serial output can be run and extended with graphical constructs.
Lazarus LCL (for Pascal, Object Pascal and Delphi programming language via Free Pascal compiler), a class library wrapping GTK+ 1.2, Gtk+ 2.x and the Windows API (Carbon, Windows CE and Qt4 support are all in development).
fpGUI is created with the Free Pascal compiler. It doesn't rely on any large 3rdParty libraries and currently runs on Linux, Windows and Windows CE. A Carbon (Mac OS X) port is under way.

[edit] Based on Ada

RAPID is the Rapid Ada Portable Interface Design tool. Current implementations utilize the TASH binding to Tcl/Tk, the GNAT to JVM compiler, the Microsoft .NET framework, or GtkAda.
GWindows is a GUI Framework that mostly supports Windows development, but also has incomplete implementations for Mac OS X and Linux.

[edit] Based on Curl

Curl is an integrated language intended to replace both HTML and a programming language such as Java or JavaScript. It is designed to yield faster performance due to using compilation. Non-commercial use is free.

[edit] Based on Objective C

GNUstep

[edit] Not yet categorised

[edit] Comparison

Toolkit	Main language	Bindings	Tools	License	Pros	Cons
Tk	Tcl	Ruby (RubyTk), Python (Tkinter), Perl (Perl/Tk), Ada (TASH), CommonLisp (LTk), ... \|			very portable, many language bindings	dated, no property grid widget
Qt	C++/Java	Ruby (QtRuby), Python (PyQt)	Qt Designer, Qt Creator	GPL 2/3 (for open source projects), Q Public License. LGPL from Qt 4.5 onwards.^[3]	Portable, rich widget set, GUI builder, free licence, stable API
GTK+	C	C++ (gtkmm), Perl (Gtk2-perl), Ruby (ruby-gtk2), Python (PyGTK), Java (java-gnome) (not available for Microsoft Windows), C# (Gtk#), PHP (PHP-GTK), others via GTK-server	Glade	LGPL	Portable, stable API, free licence
Ultimate++	C++		TheIDE	BSD ([2])	portable, NTL, free license
KWWidgets	C++	Tcl/Tk, Python	VisualStudio, gcc	BSD	portable
wxWidgets	C++	Ruby (wxRuby), Python (wxPython), Perl (wxPerl), Java (wx4j), Lua (wxLua), JavaScript (wxJavaScript), Smalltalk (wxSqueak), Erlang (wxErlang), Haskell (wxHaskell), ...	VisualWx, Boa Constructor, PythonCard, Spe, XRCed, wxGlade, wxFormBuilder, DialogBlocks ($), wxDesigner ($)		Semantic similarities to MFC make migration easy.
Agar	C			BSD	portable, unique across platforms, fast, low-level	no property grid
Swing	Java		Eclipse, NetBeans		portable (java), advanced widgets, GUI builders
SWT	Java	D (DWT)	Eclipse		portable
AWT	Java				portable
FOX	C++	Ruby (FXRuby), Python (FXPy), Eiffel (EiffelFox)
FLTK	C++	Python (pyFLTK)	FLUID (Fast Light UI Designer)
Windows Forms	CLI languages	CLI languages	Expression, VisualStudio			portability issues, no MVC
WPF / XAML / Silverlight	CLI languages	CLI languages	Expression, VisualStudio			portability issues
MFC / WinAPI	C++		VisualStudio			not portable
ATL / WTL	C++		VisualStudio			not portable
XUL	XML/JavaScript				portable
YAAF	C++
Motif / Lesstif	C
EWL (Enlightenment Widget Library)	C/C++
SmartWin++	C++
Juce	C++		Jucer
XVT	C++
GLUI	C++
Clutter	C	Perl, Python, C#, C++, Vala, Ruby		LGPL	GTK+ and WebKit embedding
NUI	C++		Yapuka	GPL and proprietary
CLX	C++
InterViews	C++
VCL	Delphi
Xaw / Athena	C++
tekUI	C / Lua

[edit] References

^ This version provides the core API of the .NET Framework 2.0, but its implementation of this API is still incomplete.
^ libquinta.org, http://libquinta.org/, retrieved on 2007-11-12
^ LGPL License Option Added to Qt

[edit] External links

The GUI Toolkit, Framework Page, comparing some of the modern GUIs out there.
Survey of Widget sets (for the X Window System) (Edward Falk)
GUI Toolkits for The X Window System (Leslie Polzer, freshmeat.net, 27 July 2003)
Overview of Microsoft Windows GUI libraries

[0] This version provides the core API of the .NET Framework 2.0, but its implementation of this API is still incomplete.

[1] libquinta.org, http://libquinta.org/, retrieved on 2007-11-12

[2] LGPL License Option Added to Qt

[1]

[2]

[3]