I installed the GtkSharp 3.22.24.36 package via Project > Add NuGet Packages..., which completed successfully. But now Monodevelop can't decide which version of GtkSharp to use (3.22.24.36 or the in-built one, 2.12).
If I uncheck gtk-sharp in the Edit references... dialog, it tells me that I can't use the UI designer without it.
How do I get Monodevelop to use the downloaded GtkSharp (3.22)?
MonoDevelop comes with a custom version of Gtk2 + Xwt bundled. If you plan to use Gtk3, then the designer must be deactivated, since it won't work with Gtk3.
My advice, anyway, no matter which toolkit you use, is to avoid using the designer. As soon as you involve the designer, you code heavily depends on the IDE you use (Visual Studio, MonoDevelop, NetBeans... you name it).
Creating user interfaces "by hand" is no longer traumatic as it was in the 90's with the Windows API. For example, you can find a very good Gtk# tutorial in ZetCode.
User Interface Toolkits are actually very similar, they change the name of widgets and sometimes provide a slightly different layout, but they are all mostly the same, no matter it is WinForms or Gtk(for C#), Swing (Java), or Qt (C++ and others).
I know its an older question but things changed. Abandon MonoDevelop, just use the .NET Standard bound implementation of GtkSharp. You can then literally design interface using glade xml files, using official Glade application from GTK+. You can find it here.
With the current push from MS to abandon Framework in favor of Core, we finally succumbed when we figured out they will kill Framework (which they just did with .NET 5 announcement), but we also used the opportunity to investigate other options for our ports of LoBs to core. We discovered GtkSharp as WinForms replacement and AvaloniaUI as WPF replacement, which not only work perfectly but also truly work cross-platform. We ported several applications already and actually moved more then half of business work stations from Windows to Linux.
Redmond has a good idea occasionally:
The next-gen Windows will come with a new programming foundation, letting developers build native apps with the same techniques they use for Web applications. Microsoft calls this new variety "tailored apps."
There is always a steep learning curve for developing GUIs; each new toolkit you learn is different enough that it takes a lot of time and effort and frustration. Thus developing in HTML with CSS begins to look very appealing: it's much easier and much more portable; and with HTML 5 and CSS 3, it is very powerful.
Is there any support yet on Ubuntu (or even better, a cross-platform toolkit) for developing native applications that use HTML/CSS for the GUI? To minimize overhead, I do not want to start a full browser session. (That's not very good desktop integration.) I am particularly interested in answers for native JavaScript or Python 3, but any language would be alright (easier to learn a new language than a new GUI toolkit, in my book).
Edit: I have found this page, but have not had time to read it all or test it. It linked to Python XULRunner, but again I have no previous knowledge of it.
This was asked on Ask Ubuntu back in August of 2011.
In summary, the options are:
SeedKit
The JavaScript bindings for GNOME.
There are more options, but those are the two "big ones".
You can write native apps in HTML/CSS and Javascript using node-webkit, is an app runtime based on Chromium and node.js, you can use node.js modules into your apps. it's available on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows
I would like to add QtWebKit to the list. It's like SeedKit with better support.
I'm using it personally on a project where we have native (C++) code for the data layer, business logic and the presentation layer is done via HTML5 and heavy use of JavaScript. As far as I know Qt can be used with python as well so perhaps you could use it for all the business logic.
Taking into consideration Project Jigsaw for Java 8 (to modularize the JDK), will a "new" Swing Framework be able to be taken into consideration?
Consideration means:
someone actually rewriting it
including it into a JDK release
I'm thinking, since modules can be included into the JDK, a new framework for Swing can be created and delivered for use to new applications developers, while, for the legacy applications, the current Swing framework would be included.
Would rewriting a new Swing and including it into the new JDK be an option for Java 8? (What are your opinions and considerations to take into account for this task ?)
It was not included in Java 8, and is highly unlikely that it will even be considered for Java 9.
According this JavaFX page, JavaFX is the replacement for Swing:
Is JavaFX replacing Swing as the new client UI library for Java SE?
Yes. However, Swing will remain part of the Java SE specification for
the foreseeable future, and therefore included in the JRE. While we
recommend developers to leverage JavaFX APIs as much as possible when
building new applications, it is possible to extend a Swing
application with JavaFX, allowing for a smoother transition.
In addition, Project Jigsaw is now targeted for Java 9.
I 've read a lot of discussions about Swing vs SWT/Jface. Yet, I have a particular need in mind and I wonder people with experiences here sould kind share your insights.
I'm planning to develop desktop application to integrate MS Office (Excel, Word, Outlook). Which technology I should choose: Swing or SWT/Jface?
many thanks.
What platform are you going to develop your desktop application on, and how much UI tweaking are you planning on doing? It is commonly argued on the internet that SWT and JFace are more suitable for quick out-of-the-box type UI development on the Eclipse platform because they work so well together (eg. JFace wizards, databinding and validation), whereas Swing is more suitable for enterprise level development in NetBeans that requires more UI customising:
http://www.ahmadsoft.org/articles/swingswt/swingswt.html
I have worked on UI applications written in SWT and JFace with Eclipse (which consume web services), and have found such things as the decorator framework to be quite useful. My applications require minimal user interaction, so SWT and JFace have minimized my development time quite nicely. I can see, though that if I scaled out my application to an enterprise level MVC design requiring richer interactions with users that using SWT and JFace may not be as suitable as using Swing.
Just my opinion!
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I need some resources that talk about how to design your software to be extensible, i.e. so that other people can write add-ons/plug-ins that adds functionality to it.
What do you recommend? Any books out there that discuss the subject?
I would prefer something that's short and to the point; a bit of theory and a bunch of concrete examples.
I'm not targeting a specific language, I want to be able to understand the core idea so that I can implement it in any language.
And for the same reason, I prefer not to do it using a framework that someone else built (unless the framework is not very high-level, i.e. doesn't hide too much), at the moment I only want to educate myself on the subject and experiment with various ways to implement it. Plus, a framework usually assumes user's knowledge about the subject.
UPDATE
I'm not asking about OOP or allowing my classes to be inherited. I'm talking about designing an application that will be deployed on a system, such that it can be extended by third-party add-ons AFTER its been deployed.
For example, Notepad++ has a plug-in architecture where you can place a .dll file in the plugins folder, and it adds functionality to the application that wasn't there, such as color-picking, or snippet insertion, or many other things (a wide range of functionality).
IF we're talking .NET, try Scripting .NET applications with VBScript over on CodeProject. Lots of concrete examples there.
Below are sites implementing various application extension techniques
ClearScript - Makes V8, VBScript and JScript available to .NET apps
CS-Script - The C# Script Engine
Plugin Architecture using C#
Opinio plugin architecture
Notes on the Eclipse Plug-in Architecture
Plug-in Architecture Framework for Beginners
Gecko plugin architecture
Fungimol plugin architecture
OSGI is a good practical example of a technical framework allowing to do what you are after.
The theory is here.
The (free!) book is there.
Extensibility and the ability to write plugin must deal with service lifecycle
adding / removing service/plugin on the spot
managing dependencies between services
managing states of services (declared, installed, started, stopped,...)
What is OSGI for ?
One of the main functions of a module is as a unit of deployment… something that we can either build or download and install to extend the functionality of our application.
You will find a good introduction here, on the central notion of service (which is related to your question, and which explain some problems around services, key component for extensibility).
Extract:
Why are services then so important if so many applications can be built without them? Well, services are the best known way to decouple software components from each other.
One of the most important aspects of services is that they significantly minimize class loading problems because they work with instances of objects, not with class names. Instances that are created by the provider, not the consumer. The reduction of the complexity is quite surprising
Not only do services minimize configuration, they also significantly reduce the number of shared packages.
Implement SOLID principles in your application.
1. Single responsibility principle: A class should have only a single responsibility (i.e. only one potential change in the software's specification should be able to affect the specification of the class
2.Open/closed principle: Software entities … should be open for extension, but closed for modification
3. Liskov substitution principle: Objects in a program should be replaceable with instances of their subtypes without altering the correctness of that program
4. Interface segregation principle: Many client-specific interfaces are better than one general-purpose interface
5. Dependency inversion principle: One should Depend upon Abstractions. Do not depend upon concretions
Stackoverflow questions:
Example of Single Responsibility Principle
Is the Open/Closed Principle a good idea?
What is the Liskov Substitution Principle?
Interface Segregation Principle- Program to an interface
What is the Dependency Inversion Principle and why is it important?
You try to reach two competing goals:
The components of your software must expose a lot of themselves, so they can be reused
The components of your software must expose very little of themselves, so they can be reused
Explanation: To encourage code reuse, you should be able to extend existing classes and call their methods. This isn't possible when the methods are declared "private" and the classes are "final" (and can't be extended). So to meet this goal, everything should be public and accessible. No private data or methods.
When you release the second version of your software, you will find that many of the ideas of version 1 were plain wrong. You need to change many interfaces or your code, method names, delete methods, break the API. If you do this, many people will turn away. So in order to be able to evolve your software, the components must not expose anything that is not absolutely necessary - at the cost of code reuse.
Example: I wanted to observe the position of the cursor (caret) in an SWT StyledText. The caret is not meant to be extended. If you do it, you'll find that the code contains checks like "is this class in the package org.eclipse.swt" and a lot of methods are private and final and whatnot. I had to copy about 28 classes out of SWT into my project just to implement this feature because everything is locked down.
SWT is a nice framework to use and hell to extend.
Of course there is the famous Open Closed Principle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open/closed_principle
Well it depends on the language.
In C/C++ I'm pretty sure there is a loadlibrary function that allows you to open a library at runtime and invoke it's exported functions. This is typically how it's done in C/C++.
In .NET, there is Reflection, which is offers similar (but more broad) to loadlibrary. There is also entire libraries built on Reflection like Managed Extension Framework, or Mono.Addins that does most of the heavy lifting for you already.
In Java, there is also Reflection. And there is the JPF (Java Plugin Framework) which is used in stuff like Eclipse IIRC.
Depending on what language you use I could recommend some tutorial/books. I hope this was helpful.
Plugin architecture is becoming very popular for its extensibility and thus flexibility.
For c++, Apache httpd server is actually plugin based, but a concept of module is used instead. Most of apache features are implemented as modules, like cache, rewrite, load balancing, and even threading model. It is a very modular software I ever saw.
And for java, Eclipse is definitely plugin based. The core of Eclipse is an OSGI module system which manage bundles, another concept for plugin. Bundle can provide extension points on which we can build modules with less efforts. The most intricate thing in OSGI is its dynamic characteristic, which means bundles can be installed or uninstalled at runtime. No stop-the-world syndrome any more!
Since I dont have enough rep points to leave a comment, I am posting this as an answer. SharpDevelop is an IDE for developing applications in C#/VB.NET/Boo. It has a pretty impressive architecture that allows itself to be extended in a number of ways - right from new menu items to development support for whole new languages.
It uses a bit of XML configuration to act as a glue layer between a core of the IDE and the plugin implementation. It handles locating, loading and versioning of plugins out of the box. Deploying new plugins is matter of simply copying in the new xml configuration file and the required assemblies (DLLs) and restarting the application. You can read more on this in the book "Dissecting a csharp application" by the original author(s) - Christian Holm, Mike Krüger, Bernhard Spuida of the application from here. The book doesnt seem to be available on that site, but i found a copy that might still be around here
Also found a related question here
Checkout "CAB" - Microsoft's Composition Application Building blocks Framework. I think they've got a "web version" of that too...
I have just started to develop a smart client application. These are two options I am considering.
Using Microsoft's System.AddIn namespace. Looks very promising, however it may be a little complex for our end solution.
Or the Smart Client - Composite UI Application Block from Microsoft
Recently, i have looked at taking components both the Composite UI Application Block and the System.AddIn namespace to build my own. Since source code is available for the CAB it is easy to extend. I think our end solution will be a light weight version of the CAB, definatly using the Unity Application Block
If you work with .Net, our research yielded two approaches: scripting and composition.
Scripting
You extend the functionality of what your classes can do by orchestrating them using scripts. That means exposing what is compiled in your favorite .Net language in a dynamic language.
Some options we found worth exploring:
IronPython
IronRuby
JavaScript: Jint, Jurassic and JavaScript .Net are good starting points.
Script.Net -> this one was the first one to call our attention.
Composition
If you start a project with .Net 4 or above, you must take a good look at the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF). It allows you to extend the functionality of your apps in a plugin way.
The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a composition layer for
.NET that improves the flexibility, maintainability and testability of
large applications. MEF can be used for third-party plugin
extensibility, or it can bring the benefits of a loosely-coupled
plugin-like architecture to regular applications.
Managed Add-in Framework is also a good read.
MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd460648.aspx
Codeplex: http://mef.codeplex.com/
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, use the frameworks in hand. Eclipse and Netbeans both support plugin based extensions. You have to work in Java though.