Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Feb 2009 14:07 UTC
Late last week we ran a story on how the Google Chrome team had decided to use Gtk+ as the graphical toolkit for the Linux version of the Chrome web browser. It was a story that caused some serious debate on a variety of aspects, but in this short editorial, I want to focus on one aspect that came forward: the longing for consistency. Several people in the thread stated they were happy with Google's choice for purely selfish reasons: they use only Gtk+ applications on their GNOME desktops. Several people chimed in to say that Qt integrates nicely in a Gtk+ environment. While that may be true from a graphical point of view, that really isn't my problem with mixing toolkits. The issue goes a lot deeper than that.
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Member since:2006-02-15
Is it really that hard for people to deal with more than one toolkit? When a dialogue box pops of with a different button order, do you instantly go into a state of shock and start drooling all over your keyboard?
This Qt vs GTK / KDE vs Gnome is getting RETARDED.
I can understand if there are interoperability issues, but it's as if fans of one toolkit view the other as kryptonite that saps all their geeky computer powers away from them.
You miss the point by a mile or few. As the article itself says, it doesn't matter which toolkit is in use as long as all the applications look and feel consistent.
I for one am not specifically a fan of either GTK+ or Qt. GTK+ has several flaws I don't like, and I have absolutely no Qt programming experience, so neither of them are the perfect choice for me. But it's the look and feel of all the applications on my desktop that makes or breaks which apps get to stay on my computer. Qt apps on a GNOME desktop just feel out of place just as much as GTK+ apps feel out of place on a KDE desktop. The reason why I use GNOME as my desktop is because there are no Qt equivalents of all the apps I use, but there are GTK+ equivalents of all the Qt apps I'd use. It's not because I like one toolkit over the other.
By the way.. I suggest you read the article next time and think about it a bit more. This article isn't even specifically targetting GTK+ versus Qt, it could just as well be any other toolkits/desktop environments. The point is that many people dislike inconsistency, nothing else.
Member since:2007-02-17
But it's the look and feel of all the applications on my desktop that makes or breaks which apps get to stay on my computer.
This is one of the few sensible reasons for preferring one over the other.
Qt apps on a GNOME desktop just feel out of place just as much as GTK+ apps feel out of place on a KDE desktop.
From my persepctive, the better applications are found more often for Qt rather than for GTK+.
By default, GTK+ applications look horrible under KDE (I think it is that horrible Raleigh theme), and KDE lacks decent support for making GTK+ applications look right.
I am looking at installing the standalone applet called lxappearance, I believe that this (in conjunction with some nice compatible themes such as qtcurve, gtk-kde4-oxygen-theme, gtk2-engines, gtk-smooth-themes, murrine-themes and Klearlooks) will fix this issue and help make GTK+ applications look very much at home on a KDE desktop. Anything but Raleigh, that has got to be the ugliest default theme ever.
http://wiki.lxde.org/en/LXAppearance
http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Image:LXappearance.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXDE#Components
This works by being a GUI editor for your local .gtkrc file if there is no GTK appearance deamon running.
(In fact it is probably a good idea to install the entire lxde-desktop package under Kubuntu, because all of its components are very lightweight and standalone, and it gives you a nice "emergency" alternative desktop if the full KDE desktop won't start properly for whatever reason).
The reason why I use GNOME as my desktop is because there are no Qt equivalents of all the apps I use, but there are GTK+ equivalents of all the Qt apps I'd use. It's not because I like one toolkit over the other.
Interesting. Which areas do you feel lack Qt apps?
For me, GTK+ applications are lacking in the area of music collection browser/manager (not just a player), scanner, file manager and photo management. GTK+ applications often suffer from GNOME's horrible file selection dialogs. GNOME has relatively poor support for clipboard management. And significantly, a few GNOME applications are Mono applications and not really straight GTK+ applications at all.
Having said that, even then, I still prefer GIMP over Krita (perhaps until Krita 2.0 becomes available, I don't know), Synaptic over Adept, and Firefox over Konqueror (no contest here. Maybe one day there will be a useable Qt browser with webkit).
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.More News »
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Member since:
2006-01-16
Is it really that hard for people to deal with more than one toolkit? When a dialogue box pops of with a different button order, do you instantly go into a state of shock and start drooling all over your keyboard?
This Qt vs GTK / KDE vs Gnome is getting RETARDED.
I can understand if there are interoperability issues, but it's as if fans of one toolkit view the other as kryptonite that saps all their geeky computer powers away from them.
You're all like a bunch of little old ladies bickering about how it's such a sin to wear white after labor day. Maybe we should write to Miss Manners and see what she has to say about this...