List of widget toolkits


This article provides a list of widget toolkits, used to construct the graphical user interface of programs, organized by their relationships with various operating systems.

Low-level widget toolkits

Integrated in the operating system

As a separate layer on top of the operating system

  • The X Window System contains primitive building blocks, called Xt or "Intrinsics", but they are mostly only used by older toolkits such as: OLIT, Motif and Xaw. Most contemporary toolkits, such as GTK or Qt, bypass them and use Xlib or XCB directly.
  • The Amiga OS Intuition was formerly present in the Amiga Kickstart ROM and integrated itself with a medium-high level widget library which invoked the Workbench Amiga native GUI. Since Amiga OS 2.0, Intuition.library became disk based and object oriented. Also Workbench.library and Icon.library became disk based, and could be replaced with similar third-party solutions.
  • Since 2005, Microsoft has taken the graphics system out of Windows' kernel.

High-level widget toolkits

OS dependent

On [Amiga]

  • BOOPSI was introduced with OS 2.0 and enhanced Intuition with a system of classes in which every class represents a single widget or describes an interface event. This led to an evolution in which third-party developers each realised their own personal systems of classes.
  • MUI: object-oriented GUI toolkit and the official toolkit for MorphOS.
  • ReAction: object-oriented GUI toolkit and the official toolkit for AmigaOS.
  • Zune (GUI toolkit) is an open source clone of MUI and the official toolkit for AROS.

On [macOS]

  • Cocoa - used in macOS . As a result of macOS' OPENSTEP lineage, Cocoa also supports Windows, although it is not publicly advertised as such. It is generally unavailable for use by third-party developers. An outdated and feature-limited open-source subset of Cocoa exists within the WebKit project, however; it is used to render Aqua natively in Safari (web browser) for Windows. Apple's iTunes, which supports both GDI and WPF, includes a mostly complete binary version of the framework as "Apple Application Support".
  • Carbon - the deprecated framework used in Mac OS X to port “classic” Mac applications and software to the Mac OS X.
  • MacApp, the framework for the Classic Mac OS by Apple.
  • PowerPlant, the framework for the Classic Mac OS by Metrowerks.

On [Microsoft Windows]

On [Unix], under the X Window System

Note that the X Window System was originally primarily for Unix-like operating systems, but it now runs on Microsoft Windows as well using, for example, Cygwin, so some or all of these toolkits can also be used under Windows.

Cross-platform

Based on C">C (programming language)">C (including bindings">Language binding">bindings to other languages)

Based on [C++] (including bindings">Language binding">bindings to other languages)

Based on Python">Python (programming language)">Python

Based on Flash">Adobe Flash">Flash

Based on Go">Go (programming language)">Go

  • Fyne, open source is inspired by the principles of Material Design to create applications that look and behave consistently across Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Android and iOS.

Based on [XML]

Based on [JavaScript]

General
RIAs
Full-stack framework
Resource-based
No longer developed

Based on SVG">Scalable Vector Graphics">SVG

  • Raphaël is a JavaScript toolkit for SVG interfaces and animations

Based on C#">C Sharp (programming language)">C#

Based on Java">Java (programming language)">Java

  • The Abstract Window Toolkit is Sun Microsystems' original widget toolkit for Java applications. It typically uses another toolkit on each platform on which it runs.
  • Swing is a richer widget toolkit supported since J2SE 1.2 as a replacement for AWT widgets. Swing is a lightweight toolkit, meaning it does not rely on native widgets.
  • Apache Pivot is an open-source platform for building rich web applications in Java or any JVM-compatible language, and relies on the WTK widget toolkit.
  • JavaFX and FXML.
  • The Standard Widget Toolkit is a native widget toolkit for Java that was developed as part of the Eclipse project. SWT uses a standard toolkit for the running platform underneath.
  • Codename One originally designed as a cross platform mobile toolkit it later expanded to support desktop applications both through JavaSE and via a JavaScript pipeline through browsers
  • java-gnome provides bindings to the GTK toolkit and other libraries of the GNOME desktop environment
  • Qt Jambi, the official Java binding to Qt from Trolltech. The commercial support and development has stopped
  • ZK - A Java Web framework for building rich Ajax and mobile applications

Based on [Object Pascal]

  • FireMonkey or FMX is a cross-platform widget and graphics library distributed with Delphi and C++Builder since version XE2 in 2011. It has bindings for C++ through C++Builder, and supports Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and most recently Linux. FireMonkey supports platform-native widgets, such as a native edit control, and custom widgets that are styled to look native on a target operating system. Its graphics are GPU-accelerated and it supports styling, and mixing its own implementation controls with native system controls, which lets apps use native behaviour where it's important
  • IP Pascal uses a graphics library built on top of standard language constructs. Also unusual for being a procedural toolkit that is cross-platform, and is completely upward compatible with standard serial input and output paradigms. Completely standard programs with serial output can be run and extended with graphical constructs.
  • Lazarus LCL, a class library wrapping GTK+ 1.2–2.x, and the Windows API.
  • fpGUI is created with the Free Pascal compiler. It doesn't rely on any large 3rdParty libraries and currently runs on Linux, Windows, Windows CE, and Mac. A Carbon port is underway.
  • CLX was used with Borland's Delphi, C++ Builder, and Kylix, for producing cross-platform applications between Windows and Linux. It was based on Qt, wrapped in such a way that its programming interface was similar to that of the VCL toolkit. It is no longer maintained and distributed, and has been replaced with FireMonkey, a newer toolkit also supporting more platforms, since 2011.

Based on [Objective-C]

Based on Dart">Dart (programming language)">Dart

Based on Swift">Swift (programming language)">Swift

Based on Ruby">Ruby (programming language)">Ruby

Not yet categorised