Re: Native widgets (was: Re: So, honestly, is GNUStep a viable development option?)

[Aria Stewart]

> > I don't agree here. Using native file chooser or other common dialog
> panels will be break the look and feel of a GNUstep application.  
> OK, you
> may not like this look and feel, but at least within an application it
> should be consistent. Using native dialog panels would also inhibit  
> the
> accessory view mechanism, not that we are doing that great with it
> currently.
> It would be fairly easy to add native dialog panels on windows, but  
> how
> would you do it on Unix systems? We have different ones for KDE and
> Gnome, other environments don't even provide a shared one. What  
> kind of
> consistency would we gain by using a KDE (or QT) file chooser in a  
> Gnome
> environment?

Integration is worth a lot. A whole lot.

There's two modes Gnustep gets used in, and supporting both is  
something I'd say is pretty smart: Gnustep as a main environment --  
probably using Windowmaker as a window manager. The other is under  
whatever environment the user already uses. Sensing that and  
adjusting, so that apps feel right no matter where they are would be  
excellent.

Both KDE and GTK's file browser widgets, as an example, can be  
extended. Some of the APIs to do so will be a bit unpleasant to meld  
with Gnustep, but there's a win there: Making the user feel at home.  
Stop keeping the reputation as stuck-in-the-80s-purists, and get on  
to being user-focused.

Then when there are sufficient apps that a fully native desktop  
starts to feel right, let users start switching.

This runs deeper, too, and into the theming issue. Providing a  
GNUstep GTK theme and QT theme might be a win too, though plenty of  
work. Add all the tools to make things feel integrated, and then  
embrace and extend.

> What we could try to do is move the gui code for these dialog panels
> into NIB files (or Gorm files if you are a bit old fashioned :-) and
> thereby offer the opportunity to replace them with layouts more suited
> for the current environment. Anybody interested in taking this  
> task? It
> will be a great chance to learn more about Gorm.

That'd be smart. I wonder how hard it would be to add a library or  
protocol that lets one use NSNativeFileChooser or whatever, as a  
widget in those files. Absolute positioning can be a small issue  
there, but I think it's solvable. It might add some constraints to  
the file chooser widget, but ultimately, I think that's a low price  
to pay.