Re: Some pre-project questions

[TGI]

I'll second what zentara said. A perl based GUI can be attractive, easy to use, and easy to distribute.

My employer distributes several windows applications based on Perl/Tk using ActiveState's perlapp. PAR works quite well, too. We decided to go with perlapp because it is (was?) faster on startup and very reasonably priced.

While Perl/Tk has served me well, I will say that I've had my share of discontents with it. I've spent some time looking at Wx, Gtk2, Prima, Tcl:Tk and Tkx as potential migration paths for our apps. All of these options have promise, so I can't really say which I'd recommend for a new project.

For me, the following things are important in a GUI library:

• Readable documentation
• Cross platform ( X11, Aqua, and Win32 )
• Easily packageable with PAR or perlapp
• Works with POE
• Under active development

Perl/Tk has the big advantage of being the reigning 'standard' for Perl GUI development. Will this be true in the future? I don't know. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the various issues is willing to comment.

If you don't care about X-Platform, you can also use Win32::GUI.

If I was just starting with perl GUI, I'd probably go with Tcl::Tk or Tkx.

If I were you, I'd try installing each of the different libraries I mentioned and running through the various tutorials. I'd look at the docs, and see if they make sense to me. I'd try packaging the tutorial apps with PAR. Based on these experiences, I'd make my decision. Oh, and if you do all that work, please post a meditation with your findings!

[Moron]

Thanks, it's very useful to have such an answer as yours, being clearly based on actual experience of the kind of issues I am facing.