Re: GUI for OCaml

[Christophe Raffalli <christophe.raffalli@univ-savoie.fr>]

David MENTRE a écrit :

 > Hello,
 >
 > 2005/8/30, Jon Harrop <jon@ffconsultancy.com>:
 >
 >> I had tried lablgtk before but failed to get to grips with it.
 >
 >
 >
 > The client of my application is also written in Lablgtk2 and, despite
 > helpful answers by Jacques Garrigue and Olivier Andrieux as well as
 > SooHyoung Oh's tutorials, I find programming with Labgtk2 not very
 > easy (to say the least). I find Lablgtk2 is largely under-documented.
 > Of course, this is a large task that cannot be achieved by two
 > individuals.
 >
 >
 >> I think it would be more constructive to create a decent 
cross-platform GUI
 >> library from the ground up for FPLs/OCaml. This wouldn't need to be 
anything
 >> fancy, just easy access to the simplest GUI elements to start with. 
I'd like
 >> to see GUIs described by purely functional data structures.
 >
 >
 >
 > I'd also loved too. Having a cross-platform GUI (with native look and
 > behaviour on Windows and MacOS X),   programmed using a functional
 > style, well documented (with reference manual and tutorial) and with
 > necessary tools (GUI design application) would be very very helpful.
 >

I would prefer a GUI programming language (similar to TeX for word 
processing). This might be easier to develop, can either be static (the 
widget build at compile time) or dynamic, and most of all, it is easier 
to modify an existing GUI.

 > However this is a huge task. To add on your initial question:
 >   1. do you think a minimal part of the OCaml community could
 > aggregate to ensure the long term maintainability of the toolkit?
 >

 >   2. how to have a modern look (with whatever definition you might
 > find for

  it) which *is* a discriminant point when choosing a GUI?

 >

Why a modern look, you should have the look of the OS you are running on,
using the OS X look on OS X,
the windows look on windows,
the KDE (with the user skin) look on KDE etc ...

This is were things are difficult and where a programming language to 
design the GUI is needed, because the GUI elements do not have the same 
dimension on all platform.

 >   3. how to respond to toolkit's users that need to have more "exotic"
 > widgets/systems?
 >

Let's start with simple thing for a basic toolkit,

Then, if the librairy is powerfull enough, it should be possible to 
design new widget entierely in OCaml with the library ?


 > Yours,
 > david
 >
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