Comparison of XVT and wxWidgets

by Leif Jensen (leif@danmos.dk), January 1996


I have been working with XVT for some time now (on and off for the last 1 1/2 years) and I would like to make a comparison between the products. The comparison will of course be subjective, but I'll try to keep as objective as possible.

My comparison is only based on things, that I have tried in XVT (but not always in wxWin, yet!). I am comparing wxWin 1.63 and XVT 4.01. The XVT version is a *C* based whereas wxWidgets (as you might know) is *C++*. XVT *does* have a a C++ version, but have been running on a SCO-Unix (UnixWare) system without support for C++.

In wxWidgets I am having difficulties in getting a overview of the structure and inheritance of objects. This might be due to the lack of drawings in the documentation, but also because I have been working a long time with XVT and only around a month with wxWidgets (although I have *read* most of the documentation).

The version of XVT that I am comparing is the basic one including simple PowerObjects, and not any optional packages. (Recently XVT and Orca Software changed marketing policy, whereas the fancy part of PowerObjects are sold by Orca and the simple part by XVT). Of course you can *buy* add-on products from third party vendors.

In the table below, a - means not available, a + available, a (+) means sort of, a ? means don't know.

  Subject                                          XVT     wxWin

Items:
  Windows                                           +        +
  Dialogs                                           +        +
  Push and Toggle Buttons                           +        +
  Picture Buttons                                   +        +
  3D buttons                                        +        - (+)
  Check buttons                                     +        +
  Radio buttons                                     +        +
  Listboxes                                         +        +
  Group boxes                                       +        +
  Single-line Text edits                            +        +
  Multi-line Text edits                             +        +
  Text panels                                       +        +
  MDI                                               -        +(Windows)
  Gauge                                             -        +
  Tree                                              -        +
  Custom 'controls'                                 +        -
  Table                                            (+)      (+)
  Tabbed dialogs                                    -        -
  Toolbar                                           +        +
  Status bar                                        +        +


Additional data (classes, my XVT is only C):
  Lists                                             +        +
  Strings                                           -(+)     +
  IO streams                                        +      (C++)
  Bitmaps                                           +        +
  Bitmaps (platform independent)                    +        -(+)
  Pictures (e.g. GIF)                               -        +
  Fonts                                             +        +
  Pen, Brush, Line style, Fill style                +        +
  Clipboard                                         +        +
  Standard dialogs:
    About box                                       +    (wxMessageBox)
    Question box                                    +     wxMessageBox
    Error box (message box)                         +        +
    Fatal exit                                      +        +
    File open                                       +        +
    File save                                       +        +
    Font select                                     +    (Motif+Windows)
    General message                                 +     wxMessageBox
    Note                                            +     wxMessageBox
    Page setup (print)                              +        +
    String prompt                                   +        +
    Warning                                         +     wxMessageBox
  Drawing editor                                    -        -
  Clipping region                                   +        +
  Filesystem - independent                          +       (+)
  Memory allocation                                 +      (C++)
  Image handling                                   BMP      BMP
						   XPM      XPM
						   XBM      XBM
							    GIF
							     ?
  Palette                                           +        -
  Rectangle (handling of areas as an object)        +        -
  Timer                                             +        +
  Tooltips                                          -        -
  Event handling                                    +        +
  User definable events                             +       (+)
  Constraint system (some bugs in wxWin/xview)      -        +
  Drag and drop                                     -       (+)
  Context sensitive help                            +       (+)
  Nested panels and canvases                        -       (+)
  Extended static items                             -       (+)
  Sockets                                           -        -
  IPC                                               -        +
  ODBC                                              -       (+)
  RPC                                               -        -
  OLE-2                                             -        -
  Install utility for applications (Windows)        -        +
  Install utility for applications (UNIX)ws)        -        -
  Library installation procedure                    +       (+)


XVT-Design/wxBuilder:

  General impression                              good    good (some bugs)
                                                          needs a little work
  Incl. action code                                 +        -
                                                         (I have added some
                                                          of this myself)
  Standard dialogs                                  +        -


Platforms:
  Windows 3.11                                      +        +
  Windows NT                                        +        +
  Windows 95                                       (+)       +
  UNIX (XVT has many supp. UNIX's, but only with Motif)
  UNIX, X-windows, Motif                            +        +
  UNIX, X-windows, XView                            -        +
  UNIX, X-windows                                   -        -
  OS/2 - PM                                         +       (+)
  VMS (Open VMS for AXP ??? ) / Motif               +       (+)
  Mac                                               +       (+)

General:
  Bug level (100 = no bugs :-), 0 = :-( )          97       88
  Speed of appl. 0 =  :-(, 100 = :-)               50       70
  Cross platform consistency                       95       80
  'Open' project data (ascii)                       -        +
  Level of examples (number and versatility)       60       95
  Support responsiveness (0 = :-(, 100 = :-) )     65       99

  Support for (interpreted) languages             none     wxCLIPS
							   wxPython
							   wxScheme
  Doc/view framework                                -        +
  Printing                                          +        +
  Runtime type system                               +        +
  Ease of use in certain areas ?????
  Help system                                       +        +


Documentation:
  General                                      very good    good
							  (Could be more
							   explanatory)