I haven't read all of this thread, so go ahead and shoot me if I post anything that has already been discussed.
From what little I have read, it appears that MUI is more modern (*) than Reaction or ClassAct. Because some version of MUI is available on all, or almost all flavors of Amiga inspired platforms, or architectures, it makes more sense to use it for any programs which the author would like to port to other Amiga inspired platforms.
I am only just beginning to learn how to program on/for any flavor Amiga platform, so I am not educated about which is better and why. It just seems to make more sense to use tools that are available on all the platforms you are interested in, common tools, so you don't have to convert your software from one set of tools to another, if/when you want to port your software from one platform to another. If that common sense approach doesn't apply in this situation, please educate me on why this is not the case for programmers interested in writing software for AmigaOS1.x to 3.x, AmigaOS4.x, MorphOS3.x, and AROS (**).
(*) Probably both MUI and ReAction/ClassAct are outdated compared to the same type of tools used on mainstream systems. This is just an assumption of mine, not based in any facts.
(**) I own and use all forms of the Amiga experience, and want all of them to succeed and prosper.
I am not implying that programming with Reaction or ClassAct is a bad idea, but if you have any plans to make your code portable to MorphOS in particular, where it is difficult, or much more time consuming to port a Reaction or ClassAct program and it would be so much easier to program it from the start with MUI, then I would opt for using MUI.
Now for the stumbling block that everyone outside the loop of Development Team insiders may know, but the rest of us plain Amiga, AmigaOne, AROS, & MorphOS users probably don't know.........
Why doesn't the author of MUI create, or allow a MUI4.0 version for AmigaOS4.x, or even AmigaOS3.x? As far as I know, the last version of MUI for AmigaOS3.x is the 3.8 version, for AmigaOS4.1.5, the last, or highest version of MUI is MUI3.9, but for MorphOS3.1, MUI4.0 has been available for years.
AmigaOS4.1.5 developers want to have MUI4.0 and any versions that come after that, but the hint I got from a reliable source told me that MUI4.0 is not available for AmigaOS4.1.5 for unknown reasons.
This makes it look like some kind of political reason between the author of MUI and the management, or ownership of AmigaOS4.1.5. I have no idea what is behind these reasons, or what the reasons are. I don't need to know and don't want to know, but I sure would like what ever parties are preventing MUI4.0 and beyond from being spread to every Amiga and Amiga-Like platform available, to get together and work out what ever past differences they have, so Amiga programmers can use the same, latest version of MUI on any Amiga, or Amiga-Like (hate that term) system they want to use, or program for.
I know that I am sticking my neck out to get my head chopped off for bringing this subject up, and maybe I am just ignorant about something that everyone else knows about already. Or this subject is Taboo and that is why I have never seen anyone else ask the question "Why can't we get MUI4.0 for AmigaOS4.1.5, or AmigaOS3.9, or AROS (maybe AROS has MUI4.0 and I just don't know it)? Maybe there isn't any problem between the author of MUI and the owners, or management of AmigaOS4.x, and there is some other logical reason why we have had MUI4.0 for MorphOS for years and AmigaOS4.1.5 only has MUI3.9.
Although I do not agree with the author of MUI stopping support for AmigaOS3.x, I can understand that he might want to use his limited spare programming time on just one platform, or architecture, and if he decided to support a Next Gen PPC platform, he might wish to stop further maintenance and improvements for the 68k Amiga computers. I don't understand why he wouldn't write MUI4.0 for both AmigaOS4.1 and MorphOS3.1, since they are both PPC Next Gen. Amiga computer platforms and are very similar in many ways.
Now let me find my flameproof suit and prepare for the attacks on my stupid questions, and/or suggestions.
