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pavekt

Member

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 5

Should I use an IDE for GUI development?

I have never wrote a GUI before and am wondering if I should use an IDE such as Glade (or something else) or if I should write everything by hand?  I want to develop with GTK.  What do you guys suggest? 

EDIT:
Also the reason I was thinking of using GTK was because I am making a front end for a project I wrote in C.  From looking around it seems people like QT over GTK.  Is it difficult to use QT (C++) with C code?

Thanks

Last edited by pavekt (2010-06-11 13:07:18)

davidbe

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 22

Re: Should I use an IDE for GUI development?

No, you don't need an IDE to use Gtk. A text-editor is enough.

As for Gtk, there are two options:
1. you can write the GUI definitions into your code (there are many tutorials for Gtk)
2. you can use Glade (which isn't an IDE) which let you design the GUI and generates an xml-file where the GUI definitions are gathered. In your code, you can load the xml-file.

To really get into all the fine details of Gtk, I advice you to start tinkering with writing the definitions by hand in your code.

Designing the GUI outside the code on the other hand, is - in my opinion - the way to go in your projects: you've a clear distinction between the pure GUI-design (which is done in the Glade-files) and the code.

pavekt

Member

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 5

Re: Should I use an IDE for GUI development?

So I guess do most developers use an application such as Glade to help with development or do you code everything by hand?

xenobrain

Member

From: Lodi, CA

Registered: 2006-05-31

Posts: 91

Re: Should I use an IDE for GUI development?

A lot of informal polls I've seen indicate coding GUIs by hand is more common than using a designer.  That said, there is nothing "wrong" with using a designer and they can be extremely helpful in some projects.

To put it simply--try both and find what works best for you and your project. That is what you should use.

Same goes for using an IDE.  If Vim gives you everything you want, great.  If you love Eclipse and use it for everything, well that's great too.  Choice FTW!!

No one can make these decisions for you (except your boss... )

Last edited by xenobrain (2010-06-11 20:08:10)