Gtk vs ViewsGtk

Benefits of ViewsGtk

  • Better code sharing. For example, don't have to duplicate tab layout or bookmark bar layout code.
    • Tab Strip
      • Drawing
      • All the animationy bits
      • Subtle click selection behavior (curved corners)
      • Drag behavior, including dropping of files onto the URL bar
      • Closing behavior
    • Bookmarks bar
      • drag & drop behavior, including menus
      • chevron?
  • Easier for folks to work on both platforms without knowing much about the underlying toolkits.
  • Don't have to implement ui features twice.

Benefits of Gtk

  • Dialogs
  • Being able to obey the user's system theme
  • Accessibility for buttons and dialogs (but not for tabstrip and bookmarks)
  • A better change at good remote X performance?
  • We still would currently need Pango / Cairo for text layout, so it will be more efficient to just draw that during the Gtk pipeline instead of with Skia.
  • Gtk widgets will automatically “feel and behave” like Linux. The behavior of our own Views system does not necessarily feel right on Linux.
  • People working on Windows features don't need to worry about breaking the Linux build.