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0 pointsmike_hearn8y ago0 comments

GUI toolkits moved on since the 1990's.

Go download NetBeans and create a Swing UI in Matisse. You'll find these issues aren't an issue. You can drag/drop and end up with a flexible, responsive layout that can handle things like strings changing length due to localisation. You can do the same with Scene Builder for JavaFX, although it's not as slick as Matisse. Or even Glade, if you're more a UNIX person. The latter two tools require you to understand box packing but allow for a relatively responsive layout.

The thing they don't do is let you totally change the layout depending on window size. But that's a fairly easy trick to pull off by just swapping out between different UI designs at runtime. There are widgets that can do this for you.

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int_19h8y ago

I know that full well. But one thing that you might note about these tools that you've listed, is that they're nowhere near as simple as the VB6 form designer, that was exalted in the comment that started this whole thread. They're more complicated, because they have to deal with dynamic layouts, and you are exposed to this overhead even in visual mode.

mike_hearnOP8y ago

I guess technically you don't have to use dynamic layouts. All toolkits and designers I've seen do allow absolute positioning. It's just discouraged.

But yes, these days, people do expect windows to be always resizable and that does add some complexity.

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