Why I settled with FLTK...

Bharatvaj Hemanth

January 21, 2017

For those who don't know what is FLTK, FLTK is a C++ library used for creating GUI windows.

I am one of the programmers who wanted to write code that actually interacts with the underlying hardware and see how it works. I wanted to create frame buffers, I did'nt wanted even a little abstraction until it hit my head. This seems to be large work and even if I get it to work, there is no way it will be cross-platform or will be perfect.

So I searched for a toolkit which will satisfy my thirst for simplicity and speed. After endless hours of searching, FLTK was a viable option. Though FLTK seems outdated(visually) even for my taste, I like it because of its simplicity interms of implementation. Even though it runs on X11 rather run using Linux framebuffer, it kind of meets my expectation halfway. FLUID w/flPhoto Project

It also includes a IDE for developing FLTK applications called as Fast Light User-Interface Designer (FLUID) which makes it even easier to work with FLTK.

Even though it gives a plain visual, it is completely free of bloat and is very effective in RAD models and most importantly it is cross-platform. If you are like me searching for De-facto GUI library, FLTK will be worth a try, chances are you'll fall in love with it.