Re: Fox toolkit future?

Hi Jeroen & all,

>Partially this message is based on the recent question that Pablo Alvarez
>Lopez asked about new stable versions of the toolkit but there are some
>other questions that I (and possibly others) have.
>
>1. What are your plans with moving forward with some public git repository?
>Obviously there are Github and Gitlab but you're also more than welcome to
>host a git repo directly on fox-toolkit.org if you'd feel more comfortable
>with that. I really think this could help with further adoption and even
>new feature development. Both Github and Gitlab also offer CI as well.

Using GitLab/GitHub CI for a GUI toolkit is...nice, but will not give
you much more than "it compiles" and perhaps running some unit tests.
It will not tell you *how* it looks, if the neat algorithm which compiles
alright will display all the components as you would like to on all platforms.
It may be an improvement, but IMHO not in the crucial points.

>2. The stable version (1.6.57) was released in 2018 and many enhancements
>have been made in the 1.7.x series. It would be a great idea to release a
>1.8.x stable version. What are your thoughts on a new stable release?

There I agree. But of course it's your call when you think it's stable
enough to release.

>3. How about moving away from GNU autotools? Moving to CMake or Meson (or
>something else?) may relieve you of having to maintain Visual Studio
>solution files. There are already unofficial versions of the toolkit using
>different build systems.

In my opinon, using GNU autotools is the most portable way. cmake is such a
pain to use on systems which are not exactly mainstream, not to speak of
systems to where it's not ported yet or using a compiler which it knows
nothing about.

>Making the move to a public Git and/or releasing a new stable version may
>drive the project further forward and offer a chance for new contributors
>to participate with FOX as well. Not doing these things may harm the
>reputation of the project and indicate that it is forever a "legacy"
>project. Many of us enjoy using this toolkit and see advantages of
>continuing to use it over more popular toolkits.

Every time someone asks me which portable GUI toolkit I would use again, I
answer: FOX. I think that is the best way to promote it.

just my 2 cent,
HTH,
Uli

Ulrich Teichert
Stormweg 24
24539 Neumünster, Germany



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