[PD] [PD-dev] tkwidgets

[Martin Peach]

On 2011-08-26 11:31, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> It might be a good idea to list the problems with tcl/tk so we can weigh
> them against the difficulty of using a different GUI toolkit. The
> problems I see are:
> * difficult to implement a decent zoom function for a canvas
> * can't display png without the Img library (included in 8.6)
> * can't do alpha transparency
>
> Of the three I listed, I'm mostly interested in the first as it means
> that (without prior planning) it's hard to take a patch you've been
> working on at font size 10 and display it adequately over a projector,
> for example. (If there's a work around I'd like to know it.)
>
> I'd like to hear others, but I'm mostly interested in problems with
> tcl/tk >= 8.5 as the GUI.
>

* Because tcl/tk is an interpreted language it is a lot slower than a 
compiled language: you have a script in ASCII that has to go through a 
processor that interprets the script to call a lower-level machine that 
actually does the work, while Qt is compiled so it does what you ask it 
directly, more or less.
* tcl/tk behaves differently on the three main platforms. See the 
problems with font sizing for instance.

Martin