The Zinc Interface Library "...gives a fast nice GUI, that
somewhat reminds me of windows.", "the library is well-designed."
and "you can get it to do most things and its Windows capabilities
are at last getting into shape."
"I will also add that I'm very impressed with the company. My
friend who has it told me he got an update in the mail without
even asking and he was offered a Windows version (beta?) from
their BBS for free. Very impressive for a software company."
"For DOS I've heard it's very good but their Windows version is
buggy, but I think they're coming out with a much-improved
version"
"See a recent c.l.c++ summary of PC GUI libs -- it did well."
"We are developing DOS applications using Zinc (with Borland BC++)
and are reasonably well-satisfied with it. Our application is not
pushing Zinc very hard, however. We are using it in graphics
mode, although we are mostly putting text objects & menus on the
screen."
"They provide much sample code & studying it is essential."
"Tech support is free & good; they have a BBS."
"But as a UI library it is really great. They have just released
version 2.01 with a lot of bug fixes this means it is pretty solid
now."
"The design tool saves a lot of time. The documentation is
extensive and good. There is a lot of good example code too."
POINTS AGAINST...
"The Zinc designer has lots of bugs and quirks, but you can get
around them"
"Some things could have been better done, and is surely better
implemented in the OS of the Macintosh."
"For top-professional use there are some limitations. We even
considered returning the package. But if you can live without a
100% product, but rather a late beta, then this is for you."
"It took me a while to get into their approach, partly because
their documentation goes into detail but seems to leave out
overviews."
"The library is somewhat lower level than I would like. For
example, check boxes and dialog boxes are not built-in, but they
provide examples to show you how to build them."
"They do not currently support variable fonts, although their tech
support told me it is planned for a future release."
"Incidentally, applications seem to be pretty large with it."
"The major problem I have with it is I wish it worked with a DOS
extender under Zortech"
OTHER POINTS...
"If you can't find what you need in the docs, then look in the
sources"
"Rumours says that they are working on Macintosh, OS/2 and UNIX
version too. Apple programmers has seen an early version of the
mac version."
REVIEWS IN...
Dr. Dobb's (12/90),
Computer Language (12/90)
PC Week (12/26?/91).
Byte (01/91)
SUMMARY...
It seems that generally, people are happy with it and think it's a
good UI library. The older version (pre V2.01) was slightly
buggy, particularly in the designer and the MS windows parts, but
this has mostly been fixed in V2.01. Most of the bugs had work
arounds.
The library is fast and flexible, although radio buttons, check
boxes etc, are not built in classes and have to be derived from
existing classes - fairly easy for the more advanced programmer -
maybe slightly difficult for others..
Documentation, was reasonable in the older versions and is now
greatly improved in the new one, with over 1100 pages. Technical
support from the company was generally regarded as VERY good.
Thanks to people who contributed...
pope@daimi.aau.dk (Povl H. Pedersen)
jamshid@emx.utexas.edu (Jamish Afshar)
ferdie@coyote.datalog.com (fred jarvis)
borkoles@dcs.qmw.ac.uk
ajb@ee.wpi.edu (Arthur J Butler)