Hello, I'm probably too late and what I'd like to say is too general, but maybe somebody will find the following thoughts useful. There are many GUI frameworks - platform-specific, platform-independent, something in between, but most of them (I'm afraid to say all of them :) have the same problems. On the one hand they give a user many really good things: windowing, controls, event handling, geometry, drag&drop support, etc... On the other hand they are monolithic - you have to use the *whole* framework, you cannot take and use only one subsystem. My application is based on MapApp and I see nice implementation of general event handlers in other framework but I cannot use it because I cannot rewrite whole application on new framework. IMO, the best GUI "framework" would be a *set* of separate, specific libraries each of which would provide good abstractions/algorithms in some specific gui-related area: ** general-purpose 2d lightweight geometry and general algorithms ( boost::gui::2d::point, rect, path, ...) ** painting areas, canvases and painting algorithms ** events, propagation and handling mechanisms, (event_target, listener, subscribers...) ** windowing (windows, views...) ** layout algorithms (placing visual elements relatively to each other), language to express constrains. ** widgets, controls, text engine and etc... ** ... In other words GUI "framework" should have good separation and provide set of useful abstractions, algorithms which I can use separately (more or less) and bind to platform API or some platform-specific already existent "low-level" framework (MacApp, MFC, QT, WxWindows... ). I believe it's possible and I'm not the only one who wants it. Thanks, Aleksey Chernoraenko.