[boost] Re: GUI library - another one

From: Neal D. Becker (ndbecker2_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-03-03 10:35:35

David Turner wrote:

> Hello
> 
> It seems that the idea of adding a medium-complexity GUI library to boost
> is popular, but that there are widely varying opinions on how it should be
> done.
> 
> I've written a first draft of a library that fulfils most of my
> expectations.  It's available at http://www.turn.co.za/david/gui.  It
> supports two platforms (Win32 and GTK2), and four user interface elements
> or widgets (window, label, button, text-entry).  The design is such that
> it is extremely easy to support new platforms or widgets.
> 
> These are my expectations of how a good C++ GUI library should behave:
> 
> 1.  It should be a consistent yet thin wrapper around the platform's
> native functionality.
> 2.  It should degrade gracefully in the absence of certain features on the
> platform.
> 3.  It should be extensible through the factory pattern.
> 4.  It should couple loosely with user code - this means no inheriting
> from an abstract Window class.
> 5.  It should do what the user (programmer) expects, whenever possible
> (i.e. no leaky metaphors).
> 6.  Widgets that contain things should behave like containers, whenever
> this is practical.
> 7.  It should not use device-specific units like pixels, wherever this is
> practical.
> 
> and finally
> 
> 8.  It should be extremely easy to use.
> 
> The library at the link above fulfils most of these requirements.  But
> it's not perfect.  There are some interesting design choices.
> 
> In many respects the most difficult design work is still to be done (list
> boxes, menus, drawing areas).  However, the code that exists has the great
> advantage of working.
> 
> I'd like to know what the boost community thinks before proceeding.

Not to start any religious war here, but gtk is based on C.  If I was going
to start a new effort, I'd certainly prefer Qt/kde, which is c++ based as a
starting point.