Graphical toolkits

Most Unix programs are console based. This is mainly because several years ago, most computer users were on text-only stations linked to big mainframes.

Now, Linux is becoming a full graphical desktop, and needs graphical programs, or at least frontends to

text-only programs. This is where graphical tookits come in. Here is a list of some of the toolkits available to Linux programmers:

· GTK - This is currently a very popular toolkit, and is the base of the GNOME desktop. It is C based and easy to work with.

· QT - QT is a C++ toolkit made by Troll Tech. It is the base of the popular KDE desktop.

· WXwindows - This is a very complete C++ toolkit that is cross-platform. The same code should work on Windows, the MacOS, Unix (Motif and GTK) and others.

· GraphApp - This is also a cross-platform toolkit, but is one of the easiest libraries I ever saw. It supports a smaller set of widgets, but takes only hours to learn. It will work on Windows, the MacOS, Unix (Motif and Athena) and others.