Learning more than one toolkits?
 

Is it wise to learn two toolkits like GTK+ with gtkmm, wxWidgets, or QT? Look I am C++ fans and I do like all of them. But maybe I learn two of them? Is it wise to do so? Or should I look to another language like java, perl, python, c#? Or should I speliaze for one of them????

Thank you....

.

It depends what you want to accomplish... if it's just for learning purposes, so any language or API will do :). If it's more web related, Java is neat and not so far away from C++ regarding syntax. Tell us what you are willing to do first ;)

Here's what I want to do...... I want to be desktop developer who can make desktop applications. I use Gnome desktop so ( maybe ) QT would not be my choice. I have c++ background. So there are two GTK+ bindings that interesting, that is gtkmm and wxGTK ( wxWidgets that use GTK+ ).

What I like from gtkmm is this is the most popular bindings for GTK+. You can integrate applications written from this library easily into Gnome desktop.

Ok.... about wxWidgets...... you know, Borland release C++BuilderX that runs in Linux platform. It use wxWidgets library to make GUI stuff. Although now there is no wxWidgets preview ( GUI support ) for Linux platform now, some people in Borland C++BuilderX in newsgroups told me that there will be wxWidgets support in next release for Linux platform..... Borland has a good name in software development industry.

I am university student. Right now I am confused with this options. I don't know what I have to choose. If you choose wxWidgets, surely you will make programs easily with C++BuilderX and it is a nice IDE too. But you miss Gnome support for this things.......

If I choose gtkmm, there is no commecial support so I really depend on community with this stuff. I think this is okay as long as you make applications for small to midrange business. But for enterprise......?????? I believe Borland has support for enterprise much more better that GTK+ community. But I can make Gnome program easily...... with this library........

I think about this solution........ Learn both of them....... So you can make softwares for Gnome and don't miss enterprise oppurtinity...... with C++BuilderX.

That is my problem number one. What I scare from this solution ( learn both of them ) is that I miss chance to learn another programming language, like Java, python, perl, and C# ( via Mono ). Well, I want to learn MySql, postgresql, COBRA, xml and a lot more stuff too. Imagine how many stuff I want to learn.

Ideally I want to learn ALL THIS STUFF. But that is impossible because you only got 24 hours per day.

What I want to accomplish????? I love LInux desktop but I have to realistic that in my lifetime Linux will never beat Microsoft in desktop market so I decided to focus on programming or developing for server stuff. ( Yeah, I know in beginning of this post, I write I want to make desktop applications but this is I want to focus ). This is where I believe Linux will beat M$.

So any suggestions????

Hm, some hints from a hobby programmer:

• If everybody is going to develop server applications due to your reasoning how should the GNOME desktop ever get more apps?
• You shouldn't care about the toolkits; background stuff is more important.
• If you still care, a GTKmm application can be developed in very short time using Glade and Bakery.
• Some tricks are not very well documented in GTKmm but by using the examples in the book, a basic GUI can be copy'n'pasted within a few days. There's also an IRC channel and a mailing list for questions.
• wxWidgets is also nice - I like the event table makro, for example. However, developing GUIs in wxWidget wasn't as nice as in GTKmm but I admit I didn't look very deep into their layout mechanism. Using a GUIDesigner might be necessary. But its similarity to Microsoft stuff might be useful for you.
• The ability to develop native looking apps in wxWidgets is also nice but this is also a little bit confusing in the beginning.

In fact, your concerns are completely void. I was able to get an idea about each toolkit in a rather short time, IMHO, so you will too.

Thus you should learn both. I also find it easier to learn new stuff when I can compare two or more options. Maybe you will feel the same?

Thank you. That is nice of you...........