[vtkusers] GUI integration

[Elvis Dowson]

Hi Nicolas,

On Aug 2, 2010, at 2:58 PM, nclemeur wrote:

> Yes, thank you for the hint. It looks like the Qt options is quite popular.
> But it is not really an option for me. I would really appreciate some
> comments from people using the java and/or python wrapping (or maybe from
> people that I have stopped used these wrapper?). Are these wrappers working
> well enough for a relatively simple useage? Anything to stay away from? Any
> good reason to choose python rather than java (other than language
> preferences) or even C++ with wxWidgets?

>From a performance, reliability and productivity standpoint, using Qt with C++ is the best way to quickly develop apps with VTK. Its quite straightforward and simple. 

Having said that, if you must explore an option using Java or Python, perhaps you could try creating a quick prototype using 

- java wrappings, and using Eclipse + SWF (Standard Widget Framework) for the GUI part, since SWF allows you to create native looking apps, using Java, rather than using Swing for the GUI library. I don't know if Swing is supported for the VTK OpenGL rendering context, perhaps someone else could comment on that.

- python, with wxPython (which internally wraps wxWidgets). You'll also have to install the PyOpenGL wrappers. I haven't played extensively with VTK with python, but have done so with another tooling framework, and from a language and usability perspective, its very nice. The python language is quite clean, and easy to use. A lot of engineers working with scientific visualization use a combination of C++ and python. A tool called SWIG (Simple Wrapper Interface Generator) is used to generate the python bindings for a given C++ class. I think it does it for java as well. 

For the last option, using C++ with wxWidgets, I would say don't even bother, because I don't think wxWidgets are all that great. You would gain much in terms of overall application framework support using Qt and its extensive library support, than using wxWidgets just for the GUI part, since Qt includes stuff for both the GUI plus a whole lot of functionality for developing actual apps. 

Best regards,

Elvis