[wx-discuss] Hoyle reviews wxWidgets

[Julian Smart]

At 06:58 06/03/2006, you wrote:
>>Hi,
>>
>>yes, I have about the same sentiment, he had the same topic at last years 
>>MacHack conference. But lets just take the good points he has and try to 
>>address them, and we could perhaps havea wiki page with the most heard 
>>critic points in reviews and our responses, eg as why importing .RC and 
>>.nib files is not a good idea to start with (not to say they are not a 
>>useful function for a fast start port)
>
>Actually, outside of the fact that I think he labors over the MFC point, I 
>think he has a pretty solid assessment of how most people coming in off 
>the streets would see our project. If people are concerned about why they 
>can't/shouldn't import .RC and .nib files, for example, it's mostly 
>because wx doesn't offer them a clear (i.e. de-facto standard) 
>alternative. A lot of people clearly prefer RAD-style development tools, 
>but we don't have a tool like the ones that people are used to. Why is that?

Putting aside the details of RC/nib import for a moment, which
may or may not be an issue for a large percentage of users though
I suspect not; right now the potential wxWidgets user has the choice
of several RAD tools. Yes, that choice may be a bit confusing for some,
but I have plenty of DialogBlocks customers (many from well-known companies)
who don't seem at all confused. Their investment pays back in literally
a few hours, and they make great progress.

It's not easy writing this kind of tool, it requires a lot of stamina
that is not always found in open source projects that try to do
the same thing. Therefore we have a compromise, that helps feed a couple
of the wxWidgets developers while plugging a gap in the wxWidgets
ecosphere.

Now, maybe we could attract even more people if we had an unambiguous,
free RAD tool that made the others redundant. This assumes that one
could come up with something that satisfied corporate users in terms
of quality and support and the reassurance factor. Even if we
had the resources to do this, it would cannibalise revenue and
incentive for authors of the commercial tools. We have a balance here
that may not be perfect, but seems to work. I just want to point
out that we may not be attracting as many users as we wish, but
within the limits of our restricted resources and the realities
of life, we do still enjoy not inconsiderable success.

It may be that one of the open source RAD tools will emerge as
something we can promote as the standard wxWidgets tool.
Then it's up to Robert and me to try to provide a commercial
alternative that people will still want to buy, or go
and do something different. But right now instead of wringing
our hands about RAD tools, we could accentuate the positive,
which is that a lot of people are happily using RAD tools for
wxWidgets and creating amazing products.

Regards,

Julian




---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: wx-discuss-unsubscribe at lists.wxwidgets.org
For additional commands, e-mail: wx-discuss-help at lists.wxwidgets.org