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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    Re: [freeqt] Greetings!
From:       Carl Thompson <cet () elinux ! net>
Date:       1999-02-20 3:22:37
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Matt Heck wrote:
> 
> Hello, Team Harmony!
> 
>    My name is Matt Heck, and I'm interested in joining your development
> effort.

> ...

Hello Mr. Heck,

     As you know from reading the mailing list archives, I was one of the
most vocal proponents of continuing development of the Harmony Project. 
Currently, however, I am one of the core developers for the FLTK GUI
toolkit.  Your argument for the continuation of Harmony is very logical, but
in my opinion the demise of Harmony had little to do with logic, but more
with the egos of some of the developers who (successfully) tried to impose
their will on everyone.

     If you restart development on Harmony I would be interested in
helping.  However, I don't really think that that is your best bet at this
point as there are people who will not allow it to succeed.  If you
successfully create a QT 1.4 compatible toolkit (which would be perfect for
KDE and other projects), people will say that it can't be used because it's
not 2.x compatible.  This will go on ad infinitum.  You simply mentioned
that you were thinking of starting up development again and already they
have made it clear that it will never be good enough.  I think it would be
wise if you save yourself and your company the wasted time and effort and go
with something else.

     I suggest you take a long look at FLTK (the Fast Light Toolkit).  FLTK
is an LGPLed cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit that is already used to develop
a number of attractive free software and commercial products on both X and
Windows.  FLTK has a number of strengths, including:

1. Cross platform - Applications run equally well on X and Windows.  A
simple
   recompile on the target platform is all that is necessary.
2. Very small - Despite its power, applications that use FLTK are tiny.  A
statically
   linked(!) full featured application is often under 300k, and minimal
applications
   are about 70k statically linked.  This makes applications very easy to
distribute
   (and develop) because you don't have to worry about DLLs or shared
libraries (you
   can of course use them if you want).
3. Fast - FLTK applications are very fast, in large part due their small
size and the
   excellent design of the toolkit.  Also, OpenGL is supported on all
platforms so it
   is easy to use this for your speedy display needs.
4. Very easy - The API is extremely easy to learn and use, and using it
requires very
   few lines of code.  FLTK also has the best GUI designer you will find
anywhere.
5. Fantastic documentation - FLTK's documentation is very professional.  It
is well
   written, clear and concise.  There are a large number of sample
applications and
   tutorials.
6. Stability - Most of FLTK's core developers are professionals who use FLTK
in their
   jobs and it shows.  We have an excellent idea of what we want FLTK to be
now and in
   the future.  You don't have to worry about getting screwed by programmers
who
   decide to stop development of an unfinished product because some company
tweaked
   the license of some other unreleased product that is only "good enough"
for some
   people's needs.  Nor would we cowardly run away from baseless threats of
   litigation.
7. Lots more that I am forgetting about.

     If you'd like more information about FLTK, please email me or visit the
web site at http://fltk.easysw.com .  If you have some time to dedicate and
have some ability, you could become a core developer and help steer its
current and future development.

     Obviously, I am biased towards FLTK, but both GTK and WxWindows have
their advantages so you should check them out.  However, I have found that
both create huge, bulky programs or require huge, bulky libraries.  If you
want to create small, fast, professional looking cross-platform applications
very quickly, please give FLTK a try.

Thank you,
Carl Thompson

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