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wxWidgets VS Composer

Compare wxWidgets VS Composer and see what are their differences

wxWidgets logo wxWidgets

wxWidgets: Cross-Platform GUI Library

Composer logo Composer

Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.
  • wxWidgets Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-21
  • Composer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

wxWidgets features and specs

  • Cross-Platform
    wxWidgets allows developers to create applications that run on different platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and more, without changing the codebase.
  • Native Look and Feel
    It provides a native look and feel on each platform by using the native GUI components, making applications appear more integrated with the host OS.
  • Wide Range of Widgets
    wxWidgets offers a rich set of widgets and controls, supporting complex interfaces and various types of user interactions.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The library is well-documented, with numerous tutorials, guides, and an active community to help developers troubleshoot and expand their understanding.
  • Open Source
    Being open source, wxWidgets provides the flexibility to customize and modify the library to better fit specific needs without licensing costs.

Possible disadvantages of wxWidgets

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and the complexity of configuring UI components, new users may find it challenging to learn and utilize effectively.
  • Large Binary Size
    Applications built with wxWidgets can become quite large, which might be a drawback for developers focusing on lightweight applications.
  • Platform-Specific Bugs
    Since wxWidgets aims to provide native components for each platform, sometimes this leads to platform-specific bugs that can complicate cross-platform consistency.
  • Limited Modern Features
    While wxWidgets is robust, it might lack some of the modern, cutting-edge features found in newer libraries and frameworks in terms of design and ease of use.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies for different platforms can be cumbersome, requiring additional effort in the build and deployment processes.

Composer features and specs

  • Dependency Management
    Composer allows for easy and efficient management of PHP dependencies, ensuring that the correct versions are used and conflicts are minimized.
  • Autoloading
    Composer supports autoloading, which means you don't have to manually include or require files, reducing boilerplate code.
  • Version Control
    It allows developers to specify and install the exact versions of the libraries they need, which helps in maintaining consistency across different environments.
  • Community Support
    Composer has a vast and active community, resulting in a plethora of libraries and packages readily available for use.
  • PSR Compliance
    Composer adheres to PHP-FIG PSR standards, promoting best practices and interoperability among PHP projects.
  • Custom Repositories
    Ability to use custom repositories allows for flexibility, enabling enterprises to create their own repository for internal use.

Possible disadvantages of Composer

  • Learning Curve
    Beginners may find Composer overwhelming due to its command-line interface and the complexity of managing dependencies.
  • Performance
    Installing or updating packages can sometimes be slow, particularly for projects with many dependencies.
  • Dependency Conflicts
    While Composer aims to minimize conflicts, complex projects can still face issues with dependency resolution that require manual intervention.
  • File Size
    Projects using Composer can lead to increased file sizes due to the inclusion of multiple libraries and their dependencies.
  • Security
    Including third-party packages can expose a project to potential security vulnerabilities if those packages are not well-maintained or audited.

wxWidgets videos

Cross Platform Graphical User Interfaces in C++

More videos:

  • Demo - More Cross Platform Graphical User Interfaces in C++: Custom Controls

Composer videos

AI vs Human Music Composer 2019 - Orb Composer Review

More videos:

  • Review - Review Composer Cloud from EastWest / Soundsonline.com
  • Review - Behringer Composer PRO-XL MDX2600 Review (AUDIO TEST)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to wxWidgets and Composer)
Development Tools
22 22%
78% 78
Rapid Application Development
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Cross-Platform Development

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Composer seems to be a lot more popular than wxWidgets. While we know about 143 links to Composer, we've tracked only 8 mentions of wxWidgets. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

wxWidgets mentions (8)

  • What do you think about using a game engine for UI?
    In general, people must make a choice between portability, and the breadth of optimizations. For multi-platform builds, there are single code-base frameworks available: https://quasar.dev/ For MacOS, Linux Gtk, and Windows native builds there are mature free libraries that allow both FOSS and commercial static linking: https://wxwidgets.org/ Game engines are designed to solve a single set of use-cases for... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Understanding the Layout Process in Qt Widgets
    Why do your prefer it over https://wxwidgets.org given the licenses? Personally, I was keen on Qt right up to the 5.x change over. =3. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Building KiCad 6.0.11 from source - wxWidgets problem
    I decided to compile from scratch the latest wxWidgets from wxwidgets.org. And I compiled and installed successfully for both X11 and GTK. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Tic tac toe ine c++ ?
    Some say qt, others wxwidgets, u++, sfml, here is a video from quick search on wxwidgets and c++ for beginners https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOIbK4bJKS8 Choosethem depending on learning curve and where they will take you, you might learn something harder because it takes you farther to where you want to go. Source: over 2 years ago
  • The Decline and Fall of Java on the Desktop Part 1 (1999-2005)
    > Java Swing still lets you make native-looking-and-feeling apps (with some care). I don't know of any new GUI frameworks that let you do the same. That's the whole raison d'être of the (C++) wxWidgets toolkit. [0] It fully commits to using native GUI widgets, rather than impersonating them. (That is, it wraps various other toolkits.) As others have pointed out, the other major cross-platform toolkits (Qt, GTK)... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
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Composer mentions (143)

  • Arguments a customer can understand not to use WordPress
    There is also no requirement to follow the PHP-FIG standards. The best thing that is build because of those standards is Composer. The most plugins I downloaded while writing use composer. The problem is that the plugins ship with their own vendor directory. While the standard is to have one vendor directory for the whole project. This results in different packages with the same or different version of it in the... - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • Insights from the PHP Foundation Executive Director
    “Extensions are now very close to being like packages; they basically look like Composer packages. It’s still open to discussion whether PIE will be part of Composer someday. It’s not decided yet, but I hope it will be,” Roman added. - Source: dev.to / 25 days ago
  • PHP Core Security Audit Results
    Dependencies are managed by Composer (like npm, cargo, etc) for more than 10 years now. https://getcomposer.org. - Source: Hacker News / 29 days ago
  • WordPress and Components
    Composer and Packagist have become key tools for establishing the foundations of PHP-based applications. Packagist is essentially a directory containing PHP code out of which Composer, a PHP-dependency manager, retrieves packages. Their ease of use and exceptional features simplify the process of importing and managing own and third-party components into our PHP projects. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • 2025 Best PHP Micro Frameworks: Slim, Flight, Fat-Free, Lumen, and More!
    Simplicity: Getting started is a breeze—install via Composer, define some routes, and you’re off. Scaling up? Add middleware or libs like Twig or Eloquent as needed. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing wxWidgets and Composer, you can also consider the following products

Qt - Powerful, flexible and easy to use, Qt will help you not only meet your tight deadline, but also reduce the maintainable code by an astonishing percentage.

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

GTK - GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

PyQt - Riverbank | Software | PyQt | What is PyQt?

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.