[boost] Re: GUI Library Proposal for a Proposal

From: Hajo Kirchhoff (mailinglists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-15 02:48:52

Hi all,

I have only just now gotten back from a conference and am still catching 
up on this discussion.

Jared McIntyre wrote:
> When I'm programming my apps, I want to think about actions that I want 
> to expose to the GUI.  I want to code in terms of PingServer() instead 
> 
> I also want to expose the data in my models to the GUI in such a way 
> that I can bind them easily to the GUI.  This is next to impossible to 

I've added a third article describing pretty much both of your 
requirements at 
http://www.litwindow.com/Library/Articles/rapidui_article_3.htm

> do cross platform since every GUI has their own concept of string, etc. 
> So, I end up writing all  the code to do that as well, which is also 
> very repetitive and pattern based and should be abstractable (which the 
> Lit Window library seems to do, though I haven't played with it yet).

It does precisely that and in a platform and even UI framework 
independent manner. It provides a layer above the UI framework, so your 
Lit Window Library would work with Qt, wxWindows, MFC, whatever 
framework is supported.

> If done properly, the abstraction layer shouldn't require me to think 
> about buttons, comboboxes, layout, etc.  I'll do that in the platform 

The Lit Window Library decouples the layout from the code. Layout is 
done with a designer and written into an XRC file. Code is written as 
C++ code and a simple rules language which can be seamlessly integrated 
into C++. I will be using the boost parser to parse the rules.

Binding the layout, code and data is done using names/identifiers.

> I will always want to think platform specific code when I am thinking 
> about form layout, new control development, etc, but I shouldn't have to 

I want to take this even a step further and research and implement UI 
patterns and distinguish between different implementations for the same 
pattern.

Example: Two listboxes and four buttons <, <<, >, >> let a user choose m 
elements out of a list of n elements. Its a very common design pattern. 
Another implementation is the check list box, a list box with check 
boxes in front of each item. It implements the same UI design pattern, 
select m of n, but with completely different visuals.

A good UI design tool would let you choose the pattern, "select m of n" 
and then offer you a variety of possible implementations for various 
platforms such as big screen (>1024x768 resolution), small screen 
(640x480) or even a phone.

Hajo

Lit Window Library: http://www.litwindow.com/library