Re: [boost] Re: [gui] On Native Controls

From: Andreas Pokorny (dieMumiee_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-26 04:53:15

Alan Gutierrez wrote
> > * Martin Slater <mslater_at_[hidden]> [2004-12-26 00:38]:
> > > Seconded, I dislike immensely UI's that do not have a native look. In 
> > > the end they just look unprofessional to me. The're fine for hacking 
> > > quick tools together but if the product is intented to be released to 
> > > the wider public they must look and feel like the native OS apps.
> > 
> >     As noted elsewhere, providing native look and feel in a UI
> >     manager is not the challenge on Macintosh, where the controls
> >     are designed to particpate in any aspect of UI.
> > 
> >     I want look and feel. Aqua look and feel for Mac. Skinnable look
> >     and feel for media gizmos. Pen oriented look and feel for handhelds.
> > 
> >     I'm only trying to raise a red flag and say that a simple
> >     wrapper around the UI widgets is not enough. That look and feel
> >     is a pretty big issue, especially with the Win32 GDI, native
> >     controls do not participate in overlayed layout managment.
>     
>     That last part was suppposed to read:
> 
>         That look and feel is a pretty big issue, especially when,
>         with the Win32 GDI, native controls do not participate in
>         overlayed layout managment.

I have the feeling that a gui library has to many different customers, 
and wishes to make that all available in a single library. I would love
to see a library that allows really cute self made themes, and simplifies
extending the library with custom widgets, by adding a class that uses a
vector rendering library, like for example Anti-Grain-Geometry. 

But already these two wishes create lots of problems. Then there are again 
other people that want to only take care about the data presented, and just
want the library to display the data in a gui. E.g an application could run 
as ncurses, fb or x11 gui, without rebuilding the code. 

And then there are users that want the native look and feel. Here the
differences between the gui systems might make applications 
written for the library unportable. 

Then one might think that the time for simple 2D gui is over, and that we 
should think about the next level of user interfaces, and write a library
that presents data in a completetly different way. 3D Controls on curved 
surfaces spread in a view frustum with perspective projection. 

Is there a solution that satisfies all users?

Regards
Andreas Pokorny

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