Comparison of wxSmith features

Here is a list of wxSmith features when compared to other wxWidgets RAD solutions.

Note that support for new features are added on a daily basis for some of these RADs.

Please update this list when something gets added.

General information

Basic general information about the RADs: developer, license/price etc.

RAD	Developer	Cost (USD)	Open source	Software licence
wxSmith	Bartlomiej Swiecki	Free	Yes	GPL
DialogBlocks	Julian Smart	Free (trial), $65 (normal), $30 (student)	No	Proprietary
wxDesigner	Robert Roebling	Free (trial), $129 (normal), $29 (student)	No	Proprietary
wxFormBuilder	José Antonio Hurtado, Juan Antonio Ortega	Free	Yes	GPL
VisualWx	?	Free	No	?
RAD	Developer	Cost (USD)	Open source	Software licence

Widgets supported

Widget	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx
wxBitmapButton	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxBoxSizer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxButton	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxCalendarCtrl	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
wxCheckBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxCheckListBox	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxChoice	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxChoicebook	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
wxComboBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxContextHelpButton	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxDatePickerCtrl	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxDynamicSashWindow	No	No	No	No	Yes
wxFlexGridSizer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxGauge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxGenericDirCtrl	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxGrid	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxGridBagSizer	No	No	No	No	No
wxGridSizer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxHtmlListBox	No	No	No	No	No
wxHtmlWindow	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
wxListbook	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
wxListBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxListCtrl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxListView	No	No	No	No	Yes
wxMenu	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxNotebook	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxPanel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxRadioBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
wxRadioButton	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxSashLayoutWindow	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxSashWindow	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxScrollBar	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
wxScrolledWindow	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
wxSlider	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxSpacer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxSpinButton	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxSpinCtrl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxSplitterWindow	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxStaticBitmap	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxStaticBox	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
wxStaticBoxSizer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxStaticLine	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxStaticText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxStatusBar	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
wxStdDialogButtonSizer	No	Yes	No	No	No
wxTextCtrl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxToggleButton	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
wxToolbar	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxTreebook	No	No	No	No	No
wxTreeCtrl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wxVListBox	No	No	No	No	No
wxVScrolledWindow	No	No	No	No	No
wxWindow (Foreign)	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
wxWizardPage	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Widget	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx

Contrib widgets supported

Widget	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx
wxEditableListBox	No	No	No	No	Yes
wxLEDNumberCtrl	No	No	No	No	Yes
wxPlotWindow	No	No	No	No	Yes
wxStyledTextCtrl	No	No	No	No	Yes
Widget	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx

Languages supported

Feature	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx
C++ code output	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Python code output	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Lua code output	No	No	No	No	Yes
Ruby code output	No	No	No	No	Yes
Perl code output	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
C# code output	No	No	Yes	No	No
Basic code output	No	No	No	No	No
Feature	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx

Features supported

Feature	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx
XRC input	Yes†	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XRC output	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XRC code loading	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Validators†	No	Yes	No	No	No
Conditional UI†	No	Yes	No	No	No
Event table and handler generation†	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	Partial
Bitmaps support†	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
English descriptions†	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Easy access to window pointers†	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Visually creating custom controls	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	Partial
Template controls†	No	No	No	No	Yes
Sizer design	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Non-sizer design	Partial	No	No	No	Yes
Feature	wxSmith	DialogBlocks	wxDesigner	wxFormBuilder	VisualWx

• ^  Currently, only one dialog resource per XRC file is imported.

Features explained

^ Validators

The aim of the validator concept is to make dialogs very much easier to write. A validator is an object that can be plugged into a control (such as a wxTextCtrl), and mediates between C++ data and the control, transferring the data in either direction and validating it. It also is able to intercept events generated by the control, providing filtering behaviour without the need to derive a new control class.

How to use validators in a RAD that supports this concept: Just add a variable, select the variable and a validator, and the data transfer between variable and control is done for you.

^ Conditional UI

It's the ability to adapt the user interface to the UI guidelines of different platform.

Just mark elements as for one platform (or several), and preview the look for any given platform.

^ Event table and handler generation

The RAD generates the event tables and empty handlers (including UI update handlers) so you can immediately concentrate on writing code to make the dialog come to life.

It includes a choice of event types for each window, with function name editing.

DialogBlocks Event Handler

Here DialogBlocks haves the list of event handlers.

The most noticeable feature here is that if you do a double-click on a event, you're transported to the function associated in the code. It's very handy.

VisualWx Event Handler

Here VisualWx filters the events:

• Base wxWidgets Events
• Component Events
• Windows Events
• VisualWx Events
• Custom Events

^ Bitmap support

Bitmaps support means that you can import images into your project from a variety of formats and associate them with your static bitmap and bitmap button controls.

You can specify whether the bitmaps will converted into XPM format (the standard format for small bitmaps in wxWidgets) and whether the XPM image will be inserted as inline C++ code, or loaded from a file.

^ English descriptions

English descriptions show a brief description of each element, to help you get used to sizers and also to make it easier to see at a glance the important aspects of your dialog element.

^ Easy access to window pointers

The easy access to window pointers concept means:

Give each window a variable name, and the RAD will add the name to the class declaration, and initialise it to the appropriate window in the implementation.

In XRC mode, the RAD can generate the code to find the window and assign it to the pointer variable.

^ Template controls

Template controls are sets of most common widgets together, like an Ok/Cancel pair buttons inside a sizer, being user-definable.