A toolkit is a collection of
widgets for use in a
windowing system.
What this means is that a
programmer uses a toolkit to make
GUI programs. The toolkit is responsible for determining how the elements of the
GUI look and feel. This is a
Good Thing, because:
- It makes programming easier, since the programmer doesn't have to reinvent the wheel (by writing code to handle making buttons and so forth)
- It makes programs consistent. Programs that use the same toolkit will have controls that look and operate the same.
Some
Operating Systems are tied to a single toolkit, such as
Microsoft Windows,
BeOS, and
MacOS. Others have multiple toolkits: basically anything running
X (
Unix,
Linux,
BSD, etc.). Each approach has its advantages. Having a single toolkit means that all
programs will have the same
look and feel, but this sacrifices
flexibility and
configurability.