5 replies to this topic

[John]

I prefer to code. You know exactly what your code is doing and it is a lot easier to maintain. RAD applications cause code to get too big too fast often confusing people. If also allows people to walk before they crawl. As a result people come and expect me to look through their 2000 line GUI created in NetBeans because they don't know what they are doing. That being said, RAD's should not be used by n00bs and should only be left for those who understand the code generated.

[relapse]

RAD is quick and easy but wtf is it doing in the background? That unexpected bug that pops up and drives you ******* crazy insane cause you have no idea... I like to code my GUI.

[WingedPanther]

I like both, but for different reasons.

Some RAD tools work really well and make RAD GUI design a breeze... until they won't let you move an element in a certain way.

On the other hand, hand-coding a GUI can be a frustrating sequence of code-compile-test-tweak-compile-test-tweak-compile-test...

Overall, I tend to use a mixture of the two. Even with Delphi, it's not that uncommon for me to switch to code view on a layout to tweak something.

[marwex89]

I've always gone for pure Win32 API with C and C++ projects. That really gives you control. But for the quick, little test program you're throwing together? Nah.. As Winged pointed out, some RAD tools work well, and in that case we're talking about heavy time savers.

[relapse]

Pure Win32 API, hell yeah. That is what I like.