GUI: I am also looking for a nudge into the best (GUI) direction.

[Michael Torrie]

On 10/31/20 5:42 PM, Greg Ewing wrote:
> On 1/11/20 9:44 am, Barry Scott wrote:
> 
>> It does not appear to me that use native widgets is important for a tool kit.
> 
> It's not strictly necessary. However, recreating the exact appearance
> and behaviour of native widgets is a lot of work, and difficult to do
> well -- most toolkits that attempt this don't manage to get all the
> details exactly right.
> 
> Moreover, a lot of maintenance effort is needed to keep up with
> changes to the native widgets which frequently happen with OS updates.
> And even if the toolkit is kept up to date, you need to install a
> new version of the toolkit when changes occur.

Maybe. However it seems like this is the route nearly everyone takes
these days, include MS themselves. See below.

> On the other hand, if the toolkit wraps the platform's native widgets,
> it gets all the correct appearance and behaviour, and automatically
> tracks changes.
> 
> For these reasons I regard "uses native widgets" as a mark of quality
> for a toolkit.

In C# world, WinForms is often used, but it's not "native" win32
widgets.  Widgets are implemented in managed code (according to
Wikipedia) that draw themselves using the theming dll so they look
native, or at least look somewhat consistent with regards to button
styles, fonts, colors, etc.

With the introduction of UWP apps, "native" has further lost meaning.
Going forward, perhaps MS intends UWP to be the new native. I don't know
and I'm not sure MS knows.

MS Office hasn't used native win32 widgets for many years now (since
Office 2000 I think, perhaps before).  In fact I know of very few
Windows applications that use exclusively the basic native widget set
from win32.  Nearly all apps use some kind of GUI framework, from MS or
elsewhere, that implement their own widgets, often using the Theming
system to draw them and get the colors right.  Some apps don't even
bother trying to look native--and yes those tend to be low-quality apps
like antivirus programs.  Shudder.

I think notepad.exe, regedit.exe, etc, are probably the only apps I've
used recently that actually use "native" win32 widgets.