Re: [boost] [rfc] Boost Graphic/Game Engine

From: Stjepan Rajko (stipe_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-17 14:38:25

On 7/17/07, David Bergman <David.Bergman_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> That would be interesting, but, honestly, what - if any - pieces
> would be relevant to Boost?
>
> In general, there are a few areas that might be concrete and
> reapplicable enough to warrant Boost inclusion (or at least discussion):
>
> 1. Graphical user interface library. Such as win32gui for all (well,
> at least Linux, OS X and Win32..) platforms. There are a lot of
> potential input/inspiration in the game developer communities here.
> The GUI of a game is general enough (buttons, overlays, text,
> scrollbar...) that it might be isolated.
>

Since you went there... I'd just like to make a request, that if you
all go ahead with making a generic boost GUI library, could you please
try to make some sort of a generic UI layer underneath that?  My
reasoning here is that if someone is making a generic library, or
portable application, in a lot of cases they don't necessarily need to
tie their communication with the user to a particular modality (like
visual/graphics).  I.e., if I'm a portable app, I want to say "inform
the user that foo is bar", and then it is up to the available UI
modules to decide, depending on the context, whether a fancy flashing
display saying "foo is bar!" will appear, whether it will be announced
over the speakers, or whether the device will place a phone call to my
mother and tell her that it is of utmost importance that she informs
me that foo is bar because i can't seem to be reached any other way.

Of course, this is a huge thing to do in itself, and admittedly, the
game engine scenario is one of the places where you really need GUI
and don't necessarily care for a generic UI layer.  But, you mentioned
Boost GUI... and I had to throw this out :-)

Stjepan