They seem to be building tools like these to develop important features (rich text rendering, tabs, side panes) and to extend the GUI toolkit, as well as validate that the libraries they write work as intended. Things like emoji rendering, right-to-left support are deceptively difficult.
In a similar way, Windows’ WordPad used to basically be a wrapper around the rich text edit control (and Notepad around the basic text edit control). For the same reason, desktop environment developers also tend to develop image gallery tools (to test and verify image decoding support) and things like alarm clocks (to check timer support, notification support).
Writing a GUI toolkit is kind of useless if developers can’t integrate with your system, and weird bugs are easier to encounter and fix if you use them in environments more complex than a config screen. Plus, writing applications helps you think about your design language.
They seem to be building tools like these to develop important features (rich text rendering, tabs, side panes) and to extend the GUI toolkit, as well as validate that the libraries they write work as intended. Things like emoji rendering, right-to-left support are deceptively difficult.
In a similar way, Windows’ WordPad used to basically be a wrapper around the rich text edit control (and Notepad around the basic text edit control). For the same reason, desktop environment developers also tend to develop image gallery tools (to test and verify image decoding support) and things like alarm clocks (to check timer support, notification support).
Writing a GUI toolkit is kind of useless if developers can’t integrate with your system, and weird bugs are easier to encounter and fix if you use them in environments more complex than a config screen. Plus, writing applications helps you think about your design language.
Ah I didn’t realize COSMIC also comes with its own GUI toolkit but that makes sense, thanks!