wxMax vs MaxGui ? (comparison)

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Plash

How well does wxMax work with Blitz3Dsdk? or miniB3D? Any caveats?

Uhh.. I'm not sure if anyone has tried to use minib3d or the sdk yet! They would probably both work though, with minor.. hacks.. :D

Which is simplest to use?

In my opinion, wxMax is. It's much cleaner, all you have to do is create a wxApp, a Frame and connect a few events.
Button example (taken from the tutorials, no clue what happened to the format; when I posted it it got all buggered!):

SuperStrict

Framework wx.wxApp
Import wx.wxFrame
Import wx.wxPanel
Import wx.wxButton
 
New MyApp.Run()
 
Type MyApp Extends wxApp

	Method OnInit:Int()
	
		Local btn:Button = Button(New Button.Create(Null, wxID_ANY, ..
			"Button", -1, -1, 270, 150))
		btn.Show(True)
 
		Return True
	End Method

End Type

Type Button Extends wxFrame
 
	Method OnInit()
				
		Local panel:wxPanel = New wxPanel.Create(Self, wxID_ANY)
		
		Local button:wxButton = New wxButton.Create(panel, wxID_EXIT, "Quit", 20, 20)
		
		Connect(wxID_EXIT, wxEVT_COMMAND_BUTTON_CLICKED, OnQuit)
		button.SetFocus()

		Centre()
 
	End Method
	
	Function OnQuit(event:wxEvent)
		wxWindow(event.parent).Close(True)

	End Function
	
End Type

At first glance wxWidget's sizers can be very confusing, but they are a snap when you use wxFormBuilder (no sizers in the example above).

I understand that wxMax has much more to offer, but what if I don't need all the extra gadgets etc? Is it overkill, and more complicated?

No, its a very straight-forward design. You wont have a bunch of overhead if your not using all the features. In the example you can see that when we need a feature we simply Import it. So, for example, if you don't need a button on your frame you just don't Import it.

I know many people complain about Blitz's take on GUIs (b+ and now maxgui) but I've always enjoyed using them and not really been that troubled by what is missing.

Some applications just need more features ;)
MaxGUI isn't all that bad, the event handling is just fine, unless your writing a huge application, in which case its a pain in the arse. I mainly came here because everything WORKS cross-platform, and because it actually has a good form designer.

Does wxMax support any form designer? or XML layout format?

Both, XRC and wxFormBuilder, wxCodeGen (specific to wxMax) can turn a wxFormBuilder project into code.

Overall, I'd say wxMax and MaxGUI are geared towards different type of people. For the people that need tons of crazy features and prefer object oriented programming wxMax is the one, for people who are just playing around on Windows or Mac (arhh FLTK is evil) or those who prefer the classic blitz-style programming MaxGUI will do.