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Whenever I see something like this, my first question is, wow what a beautiful cross-platform UI -- I wonder what they are using? It's amazing how challenging

Whenever I see something like this, my first question is, wow what a beautiful cross-platform UI -- I wonder what they are using? It's amazing how challenging it is in 2020 to have a simple path for creating a cross-platform UI that actually looks good and is not aimed at developers as users, but rather competes with the polish of established applications. Unless you go with Electron or pay thousands per year for a Qt license, options are quite limited.

slezyr 6y ago
GTK with many custom widgets.
Nokinside 6y ago
Or you pay noting and use QT.
- cies 6y ago
  Distros are filled with Qt based software that's FLOSS. Among them all of KDE.
chrisseaton 6y ago
I think they're using Gtk but they're basically using it just as a canvas to draw their own widgets.
formerly_proven 6y ago
Content production tools have fairly unique UI needs compared to the average desktop application, e.g. they often have very complex timeline controls that offer dozens if not hundreds of different interactions specific to the tool at hand. Generic UI libraries would only be a hindrance there. They almost never have enough screen space, so the widget/interaction density is far greater than what’d be ergonomic for standard apps. Since people spend considerable time learning these tools they generally have their own UI paradigms independent of the host OS, which is the opposite of what you‘d want in a crossplatform toolkit.
- jcelerier 6y ago
  an immense amount of content production tools use Qt without much issues though. Cubase, various Allegorithmic Substance things, Krita, Maya...
  - hellofunk 6y ago
    I wonder if most of these are now using QML or if they’re primarily adopting the older widget style.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    the question is not really whether they use Qt. It's how much of Qt they use. Ardour, for example, uses GTK, but hardly uses any of GTK for the majority of the GUI.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  Excellently put. I will have to quote this in the future.
- deckard1 6y ago
  I have argued in the past that any app worth a damn will not use some generic off-the-shelf widget kit. This includes even apps such as Excel or Word. The reasons for this are that GUI widget kits are generalized to the least common denominator. They are written with a specific, narrow usage in mind and will never fit your application to the degree you need. And in some cases the author of a certain widget tries to do this, and the widget succumbs to the weight of complexity required to be all things to all people. Not even GIMP uses only GTK+. The second reason that staying in one widget kit is bad is because it's a competitive world out there. You need to differentiate. That's not easy when every app looks and feels the same because they all use the same tool kit. In addition to all of this, different OSes have different UX. A Qt app on Mac is not going to be identical to a Qt app on Linux. Assuming the Qt app is written to the guidelines of the OS and not just doing whatever it wants. Internally, the app will do what is best (e.g. photoshop canvas), but will play nice with the external window manager, accessibility, etc.
dependenttypes 6y ago
Why does everyone keep repeating the "pay for a Qt license" meme every time that someone presents a Qt software? You do not need to pay for a Qt license, it is under lgpl, just like a lot of other libraries that you can use in both foss and non-foss applications. Even GTK which some replies suggested uses the LGPL! Same goes for glibc which you link all of your programs to.
- Ijumfs 6y ago
  IBM / Redhat reputation managers want you on systemd + gnome + wayland. Their natterings reach all corners of the Internet. It's concerted, shameless, and it's really starting to get irritating.
  - DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
    I haven't heard of this before. What led you to this conclusion?
    - Ijumfs 6y ago
      The sheer pervasiveness across all platforms with unified messaging indicates faux grassroots shillops. Super easy to spot these days. Over-shilling broke the reputation management industry.
- hellofunk 6y ago
  The license for QT has been evolving quite a lot over the last year or two, which makes many developers very nervous to use it without a paid license. Have you seen what they’re doing?
  - qppo 6y ago
    http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-kde/ http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-... Specifically this: > In case The Qt Company would ever attempt to close down Open Source Qt, the foundation is entitled to publish Qt under the BSD license. This notable legal guarantee strengthens Qt. It creates trust among developers, contributors and customers.
weeber 6y ago
The README [1] says C + GTK+3. [1] https://git.zrythm.org/cgit/zrythm/tree/README.md#n22 https://git.zrythm.org/cgit/zrythm/tree/README.md#n22
krn 6y ago
> Unless you go with Electron or pay thousands per year for a Qt license, options are quite limited. I might be wrong, but it seems that Bitwig Studio, probably the most popular cross-platform DAW, uses JavaFX for the UI.
- hellofunk 6y ago
  I was very curious, so I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comments/4c2zoh/what_programming_language_andor_framework_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comments/4c2zoh/what_program... Sounds like it’s probably not much of a Java app.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

slezyr 6y ago

GTK with many custom widgets.

Nokinside 6y ago

Or you pay noting and use QT.

cies 6y ago
Distros are filled with Qt based software that's FLOSS. Among them all of KDE.

chrisseaton 6y ago

I think they're using Gtk but they're basically using it just as a canvas to draw their own widgets.

formerly_proven 6y ago

Content production tools have fairly unique UI needs compared to the average desktop application, e.g. they often have very complex timeline controls that offer dozens if not hundreds of different interactions specific to the tool at hand. Generic UI libraries would only be a hindrance there. They almost never have enough screen space, so the widget/interaction density is far greater than what’d be ergonomic for standard apps. Since people spend considerable time learning these tools they generally have their own UI paradigms independent of the host OS, which is the opposite of what you‘d want in a crossplatform toolkit.

jcelerier 6y ago
an immense amount of content production tools use Qt without much issues though. Cubase, various Allegorithmic Substance things, Krita, Maya...
- hellofunk 6y ago
  I wonder if most of these are now using QML or if they’re primarily adopting the older widget style.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  the question is not really whether they use Qt. It's how much of Qt they use. Ardour, for example, uses GTK, but hardly uses any of GTK for the majority of the GUI.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
Excellently put. I will have to quote this in the future.
deckard1 6y ago
I have argued in the past that any app worth a damn will not use some generic off-the-shelf widget kit. This includes even apps such as Excel or Word. The reasons for this are that GUI widget kits are generalized to the least common denominator. They are written with a specific, narrow usage in mind and will never fit your application to the degree you need. And in some cases the author of a certain widget tries to do this, and the widget succumbs to the weight of complexity required to be all things to all people. Not even GIMP uses only GTK+. The second reason that staying in one widget kit is bad is because it's a competitive world out there. You need to differentiate. That's not easy when every app looks and feels the same because they all use the same tool kit. In addition to all of this, different OSes have different UX. A Qt app on Mac is not going to be identical to a Qt app on Linux. Assuming the Qt app is written to the guidelines of the OS and not just doing whatever it wants. Internally, the app will do what is best (e.g. photoshop canvas), but will play nice with the external window manager, accessibility, etc.

dependenttypes 6y ago

Why does everyone keep repeating the "pay for a Qt license" meme every time that someone presents a Qt software? You do not need to pay for a Qt license, it is under lgpl, just like a lot of other libraries that you can use in both foss and non-foss applications. Even GTK which some replies suggested uses the LGPL! Same goes for glibc which you link all of your programs to.

Ijumfs 6y ago
IBM / Redhat reputation managers want you on systemd + gnome + wayland. Their natterings reach all corners of the Internet. It's concerted, shameless, and it's really starting to get irritating.
- DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
  I haven't heard of this before. What led you to this conclusion?
  - Ijumfs 6y ago
    The sheer pervasiveness across all platforms with unified messaging indicates faux grassroots shillops. Super easy to spot these days. Over-shilling broke the reputation management industry.
hellofunk 6y ago
The license for QT has been evolving quite a lot over the last year or two, which makes many developers very nervous to use it without a paid license. Have you seen what they’re doing?
- qppo 6y ago
  http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-kde/ http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-... Specifically this: > In case The Qt Company would ever attempt to close down Open Source Qt, the foundation is entitled to publish Qt under the BSD license. This notable legal guarantee strengthens Qt. It creates trust among developers, contributors and customers.

weeber 6y ago

The README [1] says C + GTK+3. [1] https://git.zrythm.org/cgit/zrythm/tree/README.md#n22 https://git.zrythm.org/cgit/zrythm/tree/README.md#n22

krn 6y ago

> Unless you go with Electron or pay thousands per year for a Qt license, options are quite limited. I might be wrong, but it seems that Bitwig Studio, probably the most popular cross-platform DAW, uses JavaFX for the UI.

hellofunk 6y ago
I was very curious, so I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comments/4c2zoh/what_programming_language_andor_framework_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comments/4c2zoh/what_program... Sounds like it’s probably not much of a Java app.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]