VxLib - C++ GUI framework for X Windows on Linux/UNIX

VxLib

News...

10 Feb 2002: VxLib 0.2 released! See the ChangeLog for details.
4 Jan 2002: VxLib 0.1 released! This is the first stable release of VxLib. See the ChangeLog for details.
1 Jan 2002: VxLib 0.1 beta released! This is a major bugfix, and major feature addition release. See the ChangeLog for details.
17 Dec 2001: Update of VxLib released, VxLib 0.1 alpha 2. Nothing done to source code, only updated e-mail, TODO, added new Makefile etc.
16 Dec 2001: After a long time (and many critical exams) work on VxLib resumes (finally :-)) Now I just have to understand what my own source code does...
12 Dec 2001: VxLib is now hosted on Sourceforge.net, and is also on freshmeat.net
18 Jan 2000: First public release, VxLib 0.1 alpha 1

Introduction...

VxLib stands for [V]isual te[x]t [Lib]rary and is a C++ GUI framework for X Windows on Linux/UNIX. My aim is to make a clean, simple and effective GUI/application framework, meaning that programs derive from a default bare bones VxApplication to create their own functionality, building on VxLib's widgets/components.

How VxLib is different from other GUIs...

VxLib works on a "graphical character cell" basis which means it's faster and smaller than graphics heavy GUIs. This also means that you can't use graphs/charts, animation etc., but that's what makes VxLib different.
Unlike other GUIs, in VxLib all the widgets/objects like windows, dialog boxes etc. character based, and are within one single X window, leaving the X desktop uncluttered. VxLib is made from the ground up and only relies on Xlib for output, thus making it more portable across UNIX variants. Also, VxLib aims to be solely a GUI, leaving the programmer free to use the ANSI C++ STL or any other library for non-UI functionality. The main advantages of VxLib are:

fast: "graphical character cell" based so it's faster.
portable: all I/O dependent things rely only on Xlib, making VxLib potentially portable across all UNIX variants on all architechtures.
small: all the code is less than 8000 lines (for now, and without comments - determined with wc *.cc *.h and grep -c '//' *.cc *.h :-)).
extendible: custom/new widgets can easily be created by deriving.
clean: all objects like windows etc. are within the single X window.
easy to use: easier to program with that other GUIs because it's not too complex.

Status...

The current version is 0.2 released 10 Feb 2002.

Screenshots...

Here are three screenshots taken from the example VxLib application (it looks as though it's keyboard only operated, but it's not :-)):
- screenshot #1
- screenshot #2
- screenshot #3

Download/Source code...

Please download the source code distribution at the sourceforge.net project page here:
[ Download ]
All docs are included in the tarball.

Porting...

VxLib has very good potential for porting, because all Xlib dependent methods are in one small lower level I/O module, and only the X11/Xlib functions need to be replaced (for example with MFC ones). If anyone is interested in porting VxLib to another/non-UNIX OS (or API, e.g. ncurses), please contact me via e-mail.

Future projects using VxLib...

In the (far) future I am hoping to make an FTP client for Linux/UNIX using VxLib as the UI.

Bugs and queries...

If you encounter any bugs in VxLib, or have any questions regarding the project, please do not hesitate to e-mail me.

Music...

What's this doing here? Well, to do good C++ programming using GUIs one needs to listen to good music :-)! So here I link to another page which I have done, dedicated to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century:
[ Mieczyslaw (Moishei) Vainberg ]