-----Original Message----- From: boost-bounces@lists.boost.org [mailto:boost-bounces@lists.boost.org] On Behalf Of Noah Stein [Brian Braatz] (Snip)_

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Yes..As I have touched in in a previous post this should be accessible at the 'device layer'. OTOH Another way to look at a pixel is as a rectangular box that is *currently*, *on this device*, (say) 0.25 mm wide and 0.25 mm high or whatever, the next layer up.

What does "accessible at the device layer" mean in this context? A

pixel

is a fundamental unit in any graphics context. I don't think that an application programmer should be forced to jump through hoops to get at it.

[Brian Braatz] I have been watching this one for a bit now and it is time for me to weigh in. I have 2 perspectives to share: ** Encapsulation of common functionality in UI frameworks*** I am working on a framework that sits on top of boost for the purpose of making Thick Client DB apps. One of the things that I am going to be needing is a *light* layer over the various windowing libraries out there. What I need is about 20% of the common functionality between MFC\ Winforms\ Qt\ WxWindows in standard wrapper classes. This will allow me to write "most" of my applications to that interface and select the underlying platform\ framework as a build target. I mention my problem domain, because I believe it to be a rather common one. I also agree with the notion that it takes *alot* of effort to fully encapsulate a GUI. What I would LIKE would be a simple windowing system that I can use, maybe it is not the most robust, but it is "boost standard". This would then allow me to write portable Gui applications. In so far as paradigm, this would mean choosing between the common model features of the above libraries. I will be developing this, and may eventually submit it to boost, but if someone does before me, all the better. I just eventually want something that is "standard" in some way that gives me platform \framework isolation. *** Simple windowing layer needed for Boost ** I would like to also develop some GUI tools that do things like allow one to: * "step through" bjam files interactively \ debug * Show a "report" of my command line configuration outlining what appears to be set correctly (i.e. doxygen will not work in your config because variable XX is not set to a valid path) (maybe even a little cartoon dog that wags his tail if your vars are set properly) (<< JUST KIDDING) I believe simple gui tools along those lines would help the usage and spread of boost in general, and would help those who use boost on a day to day basis. To support that concept- I suggest something along the lines of the TinyXML library buried somewhere in boost. It is a bare bones lib that gets the job done. If we were to have: * Ability to create dialogs * make buttons and respond to them * make edit controls and read and write to them * make list boxes and manipulate them * make a tree control and manipulate it As a *very* simple and light library, this would allow me to make simple GUI apps that were "boost standard". The above functionality should be simple enough to do with Raw API calls on the various platforms. I would ask that those considering GUI libs take my perspective seriously, as the greatest value that can be had is "having something simple that is standard", more than it is in making something do everything. This would also provide a small incremental step to address many of the interesting ideas that have been put forth on this thread. :) (my 2 cents) Brian Braatz