From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,470860aa3e635a7 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT for MS Visual Studio References: <13duou81kg3sd1c@corp.supernews.com> <13f3e0vbb05s47c@corp.supernews.com> <13f6eg0te46m2a3@corp.supernews.com> From: Markus E L Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:06:08 +0200 Message-ID: User-Agent: Some cool user agent (SCUG) Cancel-Lock: sha1:qkc6DlvckrQA9T6sQnueo7VvkB0= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii NNTP-Posting-Host: 88.74.58.118 X-Trace: news.arcor-ip.de 1190815260 88.74.58.118 (26 Sep 2007 16:01:00 +0200) X-Complaints-To: abuse@arcor-ip.de Path: g2news2.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newsfeed.arcor-ip.de!news.arcor-ip.de!not-for-mail Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:2164 Date: 2007-09-26T16:06:08+02:00 List-Id: "Steve" wrote: > "Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen" > wrote in message > news:wvbrabr9hq0t.fsf@astra06.norway.sun.com... >> MS Visual Studio GUI development reflects state of the art when I quit >> actively working in the field more than 10 years ago. I am not impressed. > > Unfortunately comparing Ada GUI development to MS Visual Studio makes me > depressed (because I'd rather be doing GUI development in Ada!). Steve, I'd like to press my point: Have you ever seriously considered not using a GUI builder but building a GUI "by hand", just instantiating and inserting the widget where needed? It might seem tedious at the beginning, but, in my experience doesn't make much more work in the long run. Furthermore it provides opportunities too, because if highly dynamic GUIs are required (e.g. Widgets being replaced or removed dependent on the state of the program or editing process), GUI builders can't provide that (whereas "manual instantiation" has no problems), and there is also the opportunity to tweak layout, alignment, colours and inserting modified custom widgets. GUI builders are fine if you're programming for paper-shufflers: Everything is a "form" than, as it was in the time of paper forms. But interactive software needs to be smarter -- and that is what GUI builders can't provide in my (admittedly limited and perhaps dated experience). So if I end up anyway not being able to use the GUI builder, I could as well learn how to use the tool kit in the language proper. That said, I admit, I often use Glade to mock up a GUI for discussion and demo screenshots. But more often than not, I'm also putting that into code manually after I found what I (or the client) has been looking for. Might be peculiarity of mine, though. Regards -- Markus