Heya Chris and everyone!
I'm a little surprised that nobody responded to my suggestion to complete the survey of existing GUI libraries.
I'm unable to edit the Wiki - apparently my IP address is blocked for some reason. Anyways, I wrote on my blog a few other GUI libraries that we should really take a look at, check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/6an9h I will try and find time to comment on MFC, Win32, WinForms and wxWidgets which are the libraries I've had some exposure to.
I'm concerned that unless we explicitly move to structure the conversation now, it will implode.
After being away from the PC for awhile (really, it's healthy sometimes!) and reading up on all the postings about GUI-related topics, I'm a little concerned with how the discussions are heading. I don't think it's that anyone is doing anything wrong, just that the topic is large and I worry that, because of the diverse interests, the discussion may fizzle. Hopefully not. For the record, I'm *definitely* interested in some form of Boost GUI library. Personally, I'd love to see a lightweight, cross-platform, native widget library created. As a _second_step_ I'd like to see a cross-platform 'canvas' library created (allowing the drawing of primitives on the canvas). The canvas component should be able to be hosted within a special widget in the widget library. If we got that far I'd be happy. :) Skinning is not important to me (as it usually detracts from usability) and unit independance isn't such an issue for the widget library (though I think it's critical for the canvas library). So, the widget library should be easier to write - though obviously we need to sort out things like events (John's work here on Win32Gui should be leveraged), layout management and, to a lesser degree, presentation issues like colours and fonts.
Do you folks think this is a bad idea? Too much work? Or still thinking about it?
Not a bad idea. A fair chunk o' work. Thinking about it a fair bit but it won't be consuming all of my spare time until a little way into the New Year. Everyone needs a break! :) Sorry for the rambling message! Cheers, Matt