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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    Resend: Re: [freeqt] Greetings!
From:       Carl Thompson <cet () elinux ! net>
Date:       1999-02-20 3:50:49
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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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