From: Massimiliano Mirra <list@...>
Date: 2002-01-22T09:30:30+09:00
Subject: Re: RANT: Ruby GUI API

On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 08:58:06AM +0900, Horacio L�pez wrote:
> Too much wheel reinvention....
> Too much effort duplication...
> 
> What you don't resolve at framework level, you have to do it
> at application level.
> In FreeRID we have picked the Fox toolkit *for now*, and we will have
> to provide some abstraction layer that allows us to make the GUI an
> interchangeable plug-in.

I did exactly that with a small instant messaging system, a typing
tutor tool, and with a minimal spread sheet.  The first uses GTK, the
second a basic curses wrap, the third the command line.

They all keep the interface code in a separate file, and are designed
so that one just has to require a different file to get a different
interface.  In a way, this is also about writing an abstraction layer,
but you do it on a per-program basis, and then implement the interface
based on that layer.

(None of this code is distributed yet, but I'd gladly share it.)

Another idea.

What about a meta-language to describe interfaces (much like Glade
uses XML, though Glade is limited to GTK) and then have a program
produce specific code for the various toolkits?

This way we wouldn't need Yet Another Library and people could use the
toolkit they like most.


Massimiliano