RE: [rgui-dev] Idea for binding to the low level api

[Curt Hibbs]

Massimiliano Mirra wrote:
>
> <interface>
>   <section level="1">
>     <title>Blah</title>
>
>     <switch id="SomethingOnOff" title="Something"></switch>
>   </section>
> </interface>
>
> The <switch> element would represent a widget that returns a boolean
> value.  This can be the classic check button as well as the graphic,
> animated depiction of a real switch, depending maybe on a style sheet.
> By the same token, sections of level 1 can be a tabs in a tabbed
> window as well as windows in a MDI application.

This is similar to Mozilla's XUL (XML User-interface Language). I spent all
of 2001 and most of 2002 developing a large client-server application using
XUL.

One of the problems with XUL is that it is very verbose. Its very easy for
important information and structure to get lost in a sea of tags and text.
Decent GUI-building tools could compensate for this.

But the biggest problem was mixing the specification of the GUI components
and layout (the XML tags) with the specification of their behavior (using
JavaScript event handlers).

If you took this approach you would want to carefully consider how to
maintain a decent separation of concerns (SOC).

Curt