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Lit Window Library 0.3 released
hajokirchhoff writes "The first public release of The Lit Window Library (for C++) is now available at from LitWindow itself. The goal of The Lit Window Library is to speed up C++ GUI coding by a factor of 10. It greatly reduces the amount of work needed to code user interface requirements. This is not just another "better widgets" library. The library introduces two new, different concepts to UI coding: a data abstraction layer (reflections) and rule-based programming."
These will eventually allow the creation of a library of high-level UI design patterns such as "Add/Modify/Delete", "Select 1 of n, m of n", ready to be used out of the box, yet tightly integrated into ordinary C++ code.
Data Abstraction Layer:
While most libraries force their data structures on the programmer, the data abstraction layer enables the library to use almost any struct/class definition or container chosen by the programmer. The library works even with third party data structures, over which a programmer has no control.
Rules based programming:
The library adds a new element to the "Properties, Methods, Events" GUI coding paradigm. The "Rules" mechanism lets a programmer describe the interactions between widgets in a simple rule language. This elminiates the countless OnSomething methods that litter todays GUI source code.
For a comparison between traditional C++ source code and the Lit Window Library read
http://www.litwindow.com/lwl/doc/html/comparison_1 0x.html.
Release and licence:
The library is being released as an open source project hosted at sourceforge and made available under the BSD licence and The wxWidgets Library Licence. The library is using C++ and currently supports wxWidget as the UI framework. Other frameworks may follow.
Comments and feedback is very welcome.
Wanted: Volunteers with linux knowhow to help with porting. Good knowledge of C++ templates and compiler limitations/bugs concerning templates would be very good."
These will eventually allow the creation of a library of high-level UI design patterns such as "Add/Modify/Delete", "Select 1 of n, m of n", ready to be used out of the box, yet tightly integrated into ordinary C++ code.
Data Abstraction Layer:
While most libraries force their data structures on the programmer, the data abstraction layer enables the library to use almost any struct/class definition or container chosen by the programmer. The library works even with third party data structures, over which a programmer has no control.
Rules based programming:
The library adds a new element to the "Properties, Methods, Events" GUI coding paradigm. The "Rules" mechanism lets a programmer describe the interactions between widgets in a simple rule language. This elminiates the countless OnSomething methods that litter todays GUI source code.
For a comparison between traditional C++ source code and the Lit Window Library read
http://www.litwindow.com/lwl/doc/html/comparison_1 0x.html.
Release and licence:
The library is being released as an open source project hosted at sourceforge and made available under the BSD licence and The wxWidgets Library Licence. The library is using C++ and currently supports wxWidget as the UI framework. Other frameworks may follow.
Comments and feedback is very welcome.
Wanted: Volunteers with linux knowhow to help with porting. Good knowledge of C++ templates and compiler limitations/bugs concerning templates would be very good."
Here, as advertised on the homepage:
http://www.litwindow.com/lwl/doc/html/comparison_1 0x.html
or here for a real-world example:
tutorial for a simple rssreader (incomplete)