RE: [boost] GUI, CLI, UI and how about we sort out what an interf ace is

From: Gary Powell (Gary.Powell_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-04-04 13:50:22

I do have one more general comment about GUI interfaces, and that was at
Aldus, we found that users of commercial business software expect the UI to
conform to the "normal" UI found on that computer. I.e. when we used a
"Windows" style interface on Mac's we lost sales and vis-versa.

However in games we use UI's which look nothing like anything else. In fact
the more splashy the better. But for each platform we want a unique
interface that does not necessarily conform to that of the native
OS/Windowing system.

The business applications tended to have UI's based on Font sizes, the games
are all based on art, and therefore are pixel based.

These are conflicting requirements, and represent the opposite ends of
customer expectations.

However there are many common requirements, callbacks, events. I prefer the
signal slot based GUI's but I am currently using a heavy weight event based.
(ick!)  The greater the separation of the art, the buttons, the scrolling,
and the thing to be done, the more reuse of the core game control code. Even
a core FONT handling class would be useful.

Therefore for a boost GUI to be useful to me, it should have several layers.
An abstract one that handles input, output, and one that actually draws the
buttons etc. And probably the more layers the better, because if a layer
doesn't fit my need I can write my own and insert it.

Just my $0.02, and yes a long time ago, (mid 80's) I did try to write one
and it is harder than it looks.

  -gary-

gary.powell_at_[hidden]