Book Image

Hands-On GUI Application Development in Go

By : Andrew Williams
Book Image

Hands-On GUI Application Development in Go

By: Andrew Williams

Overview of this book

Go is often compared to C++ when it comes to low-level programming and implementations that require faster processing, such as Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). In fact, many claim that Go is superior to C++ in terms of its concurrency and ease of use. Most graphical application toolkits, though, are still written using C or C++, and so they don't enjoy the benefits of using a modern programming language such as Go. This guide to programming GUIs with Go 1.11 explores the various toolkits available, including UI, Walk, Shiny, and Fyne. The book compares the vision behind each project to help you pick the right approach for your project. Each framework is described in detail, outlining how you can build performant applications that users will love. To aid you further in creating applications using these emerging technologies, you'll be able to easily refer to code samples and screenshots featured in the book. In addition to toolkit-specific discussions, you'll cover more complex topics, such as how to structure growing graphical applications, and how cross-platform applications can integrate with each desktop operating system to create a seamless user experience. By delving into techniques and best practices for organizing and scaling Go-based graphical applications, you'll also glimpse Go's impressive concurrency system. In the concluding chapters, you'll discover how to distribute to the main desktop marketplaces and distribution channels. By the end of this book, you'll be a confident GUI developer who can use the Go language to boost the performance of your applications.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
About Packt
Contributors
Preface
Comparison of GUI Toolkits
Index

Chapter 11. Navigation and Multiple Windows

Through the last seven chapters, we've explored how to build a fairly simple graphical user interface using different toolkits and technologies. In each example, we saw benefits to the widget and API design but also challenges that are often faced when picking a toolkit. In this chapter, we're shifting focus to the planning and implementation of a more complex GUI—the sorts of challenges that will be encountered irrespective of the toolkit and technology selected.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

  • Planning the workflow of a more complex GUI
  • Window management and notifications for a clean user experience
  • Operating system-specific details and how to adapt a cross-platform application

At the end of this chapter, you'll have examined the bigger picture questions of application flow and navigation in a more complex graphical application. You'll have thought about how your GUI will fit within the current platform's flow and how to notify...