Graphical user interface builder
A graphical user interface builder (or GUI builder), also known as GUI designer or sometimes RAD IDE, is a software development tool that simplifies the creation of GUIs by allowing the designer to arrange graphical control elements (often called widgets) using a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor. Without a GUI builder, a GUI must be built by manually specifying each widget's parameters in the source code, with no visual feedback until the program is run. Such tools are usually called the term RAD IDE.
User interfaces are commonly programmed using an event-driven architecture, so GUI builders also simplify creating event-driven code. This supporting code connects software widgets with the outgoing and incoming events that trigger the functions providing the application logic.
Some graphical user interface builders automatically generate all the source code for a graphical control element. Others, like Interface Builder or Glade Interface Designer, generate serialized object instances that are then loaded by the application.
List of GUI builders
C Language Based
C# Based
- UWP / Windows Presentation Foundation / WinForms
- Microsoft Visual Studio XAML Editor, XAML based GUI layout
- Microsoft Expression Blend
- SharpDevelop
- Xamarin.Forms / .NET Core
C++ Based
- UWP / Windows Presentation Foundation / WinForms
- Microsoft Visual Studio XAML Editor, XAML based GUI layout
- Microsoft Blend
- Qt (toolkit)
- FLTK
- JUCE
- Projucer
- U++
- theIDE
- wxWidgets
- wxGlade
- wxFormBuilder
- wxCrafter (plugin for CodeLite)
Objective-C / Swift Based
Java-Based
- Android Studio, XML-based GUI layout
- NetBeans GUI design tool
- SceneBuilder[1]
HTML/Javascript Based
- DreamWeaver from Adobe (Web Application User Interface Builders) — Obsolete as of 2022
- Apache Cordova / PhoneGap
Object Pascal Based
- Delphi / VCL (Visual Component Library)
- Lazarus / LCL (Lazarus Component Library)
Flutter Framework Based
- Flutter (software)
- FlutterFlow,[2]
- FlutterStudio,[3]
- Nowa App builder,[4]
- flutterflow
Tk Framework Based
- Tk (framework)
- ActiveState Komodo (No longer has a GUI builder)
Visual Basic Based
- UWP / Windows Presentation Foundation / WinForms
- Microsoft Visual Studio XAML Editor, XAML based GUI layout
- Microsoft Expression Blend
Other tools
List of development environments
IDEs with GUI builders (RAD IDEs)
- 4D
- ActiveState Komodo (No longer has a GUI builder)
- Android Studio
- Anjuta
- AutoIt3
- B4X
- C++Builder
- Crank AMETEK Storyboard
- Clarion
- Code::Blocks
- CodeLite
- dBase
- Delphi/RAD Studio
- Embedded Wizard
- Eclipse
- Gambas
- IntelliJ IDEA
- InForm
- JDeveloper
- KDevelop
- LabWindows/CVI
- LANSA
- Lazarus
- Liberty BASIC
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- MonoDevelop
- MSEide+MSEgui
- MyEclipse
- NetBeans
- OutSystems
- PascalABC.NET
- Projucer
- Purebasic
- Qt Creator
- SharpDevelop
- Softwell Maker
- U++
- VisualFBEditor[5]
- VB6
- WinFBE
- Xcode
- Xojo
See also
References
- "Scene Builder".
- "FlutterFlow - Build Native Apps Visually". Retrieved 5 June 2022.
- "FlutterStudio". Retrieved 5 June 2022.
- "FALL IN LOVE WITH BUILDING APPS". Nowa. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- Speed, Richard (2022-05-06). "RAD Basic – the Visual Basic 7 that never was – releases third alpha". The Register. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
RAD Basic is not the only game in town. Alternatives in varying stages of development include twinBASIC, which also aims to be backward compatible with VB6 and VBA; and FreeBASIC, which implements much of what lurked in Microsoft QuickBASIC (and has a nifty IDE in the form of VisualFBEditor).