[Glade-devel] enhancing glade for non-GTK tool-kits

[Archit Baweja]

Hey Kunal,

Yes it is definitely possible to take a UI designed in Glade and use
it in a Qt program. This is because Glade spits out a XML file
describing the UI. And then there is libglade that reads the .glade
XML file and creates the UI by making calls to the Gtk+ library.  So
its definitely possible to write a libglade for Qt which reads in
.glade files and creates a corresponding Qt interface.

I don't know if anyone's written a libglade for Qt, but its definitely
possible. One problem I see happening is that different UI systems
take slightly different approaches to layout mechanisms.

Hope that helps,
- Archit

On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:10 AM, kunal at singhkunal.com
<kunal at singhkunal.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>    I am an embedded system developer.
>    Off recently, GUI Design has gained (and is gaining) a critical
>  importance in EMbedded Systems.
>    So, I have decided to familiarize (actually more than just familiarize)
>  myself with at least one GUI tool-kit.
>
>    I had two options to choose from GTK+ and Qt.
>    I have decided to go for GTK+.
>    I will initially focus on GUI design using Glade.
>
>    While I am picking up on Glade, a thought keep on striking my mind. What
>  if I some client asks me to design a product with Qt for him?
>    I know that being a GTK+ user, my first effort should be to convince him
>  that GTK+ can do as good (or ever far better than) job as Qt. But, what if
>  he just wants to go for Qt (he has a stable platform based on Qt)? The only
>  choice which I will have in that case will be to hire a resource who has a
>  good hold on "Qt-Designer".
>
>     I think that there should be an interface builder, which does not care
>  about the underlying tool-kit (whether GTK or Qt). I have two questions:
>     (a) Is it technically feasible (I guess the answer is YES).
>     (b) Is any such tool already available (I guess the answer is NO).
>
>      If (a) is YES and (b) is NO, does it makes sense to enhance glade so
>  as to support the Qt as well? It will help development engineers to just
>  focus on the Interface builder details, without worrying about what is the
>  underlying toolkit. glade will attract more user in that case.
>
>     I am not sure if it will be feasible to modify Glade in such a way. May
>  be Glade has already come to a shape where it can not be so easily modified
>  for Qt support. In that case, may be it will make sense to think of a new
>  project.
>
>      I am not sure if this is the right mailing list to post this question.
>  But, I felt it is. So, I did it.
>
>  Regards,
>  Kunal
>  www.singhkunal.com
>
>  PS: Nokia was initially using GTK+ for its internet tablet development
>  platform "Maemo". Now it has announced support (on the same platform) for
>  Qt as well (not sure if it has something to do with Qt acquisition). In
>  future more platforms might support both GTK+ And Qt. In such a scenario a
>  Unified GUI builder will come handy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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