SA Developer .NET

Is it worth learning XML User Interface Language, or is it one of those taboo things? I know Googling would turn up many questions, but nobody seems to compare it with any other technologies that may pose a threat to its existence. I was looking at Hypertext Applications, but support for different platforms lead me to Googling substitutes, which turned up XUL

XUL is the user interface language used by Firefox. XUL is not a web technology, it is for creating desktop applications.

The basic difference between XUL and say Microsoft's XAML is that XUL uses Javascript, where as XAML uses compiled .NET libraries.

The major Open Source technology for describing a user interface in XML is libGlade. Typically you would develop in C using the GTK+ gui toolkit. The GTK+ GUI is loaded from an .xml file by libGlade.

Now, I would not recomend that road for anyone who is not familiar with C, but there is an alternative. The same can be acheived with GTK+, libGlade and PHP.

http://gtk.php.net/manual1/cs/gladeclasses.php

GTK+ itself is cross platform. I have developed apps in GTK+ for both Linux and Windows.

If you are willing to drop the .XML requirement, there is another option. wxWidgets. wxWidgets is a standard API that allows you to use the native GUI of your platform without changing your code. So, one application can transparently use the underyling GUI and thus be cross platform. The bonus is you can code in C#.

http://www.wxwidgets.org/

Of course, there is also GTK+ for .NET development or GTK#.

http://www.mono-project.com/GtkSharp

Cheers

Paul

Hi Paul,

I have been Googling, and I clicked onto Tcl/Tk, and am going to have a look at that, considering it has good wrapper for SQLite, but for now I am just going to settle down and continue with LAMP development.

As far as programming goes, I am not sure what I want to do, so I am naturally having difficulties finding a suitable language. I'll stick to web development for now, but eventually will get into developing desktop applications.

The only project I have at the moment is developing a desktop application for my father's businesses that he can store contact and stock information in for himself, and clients and I decided to use SQLite for the database technology, but other than that it looks like I am going to land up using C, unless Tcl/TK or XUL proves easier, and then there is Python too, which I find lovely to code in, but the fact that it is interpreted is not helping it win my heart.

If you can think of anything that may help, please.

Cheers...

Orikuuido:

SQLite for the database technology, but other than that it looks like I am going to land up using C, unless Tcl/TK or XUL proves easier, and then there is Python too, which I find lovely to code in, but the fact that it is interpreted is not helping it win my heart.

Yuk! C for database driven IS apps. Languages have their strong points, and I think today data access and info systems are not a strong point of C (and its not even OO). Go that route if you have LOTS of time on your hands ... and I'm referring more to the maintenance nightmare that awaits you after delivering the project.

For efficient information system dev I recommend an OO platform, with a strong data access emphasis and highly standardized library-framework: .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, Mono.

Since  your dev'ing a desktop app that is not taking a lot of multiple connections, you should really consider the object database db4o for super fast data access (super fast as in the db itself and the dev).

A good toolkit on top of the platform, such as Rails, Django, Pyjamas, ASP.NET or Google Web Toolkit + db4o, will have you churning out high quality apps in no time!

Hi

I urgently need a Python developer. with strong experience in C++. Please could you assist me with anyone who has strong experience on Python.

 Regards, Marinda

Hi Marisa,

unfortunately I have moved away from Python, and am currently studying towards my Zend PHP 5 Certification. I am looking for freelance web design, but purely in order to gain experience.