When comparing wxWidgets vs Ultimate++, the Slant community recommends wxWidgets for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform GUI toolkits?” wxWidgets is ranked 1st while Ultimate++ is ranked 22nd. The most important reason people chose wxWidgets is:
wxWidgets was started in 1992 by Julian Smart.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Mature
wxWidgets was started in 1992 by Julian Smart.
Pro Truly native look and feel
It uses the platform's native API rather than emulating the GUI.
Pro Open source
wxWidgets can be used for free or commercial projects, at no cost.
Pro Can do custom control rendering
You can make a custom renderer using the class wxDelegateRendererNative to draw directly any standard control or using the class BackgroundWindow to use any bitmap as a control background.
Pro Forms designers
Several forms designers, like wxFormBuilder, are available.
Pro Designer
A very nice designer: wxCrafter. Free for non-commercial use/evaluation phase (without time expiration). Highly recommended if you plan to use wxWidgets.
Pro Perfect combination: wxFormBuilder + ZeroBrane (wxLua)
Lua Language can provide extra high level scripting
Pro Can use Qt on X11
WxQt is available on X11.
Pro Visual designer
Pro Simple to use
The whole framework is easy to use.
Pro Documentation and help tool
Pro Code analyzer
Pro Easy to learn
The whole framework is easy to learn thanks to multiple tutorials.
Pro Free
Pro Helpful community
Cons
Con Android port not totally usable yet
See WxAndroid.
Con Uses GTK on X11
WxWidgets uses GTK+ on X11 desktop which well known for looking like an alien on non GTK+ desktops.
Con Has slightly heavy compiled result
Con Written in C++
Con Strictly C++
Con This is an application development framework not simply a GUI toolkit / library API
It is designed for you to develop your whole application using it, not just your GUI. Most people probably are not really looking for that.
