Re: OT: GUI [was:]Ann: TeXCAD 4.1

[Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>]

Preben Randhol <randhol+valid_for_reply_from_news@pvv.org> wrote:
: I haven't used Gwindows but if the argument is that one should use the
: underlaying GUI in the OS then why don't one use the Windows API?

Because the Windows API (assuming Win32), versatile as it may be,
is at a comparatively very low level.

Some toolkits provide reusable components well suited to both
the operating system and the programming language used.

BTW, does GtkAda have d&d of data icons (like files in windows folders)
or of other documents' objects into Gtk views?

:  Then you can see how it works on Windows. I think it should be
: just fine and you can concentrate on developing more features in your
: application and let purist port it for you to the GUI of their choice.

It's not a question of purism, but of usability and features that just
cannot be provided because they aren't supported in the portable GUI
toolkit.
 
:> What do you mean by a muffineer or grater in UI terms?
: 
: Nothing.

I is not true that I had meant nothing (unless in your world
something = nothing).
However, I have been observing now for some years that engineers
tend to be condescending when it comes to creativity not involving
the technical toys they are used to.  Old habits die hard.

In fact, you might have observed that some household items have
a *long* tradition in GUIs, e.g. the trash bin. IBM had the opposite,
very visibly, namely templates. This is another feature that is barely
persent in Windows, but I wouldn't know how to do this in GtkAda,
systemwide.

Things could become more portable across modern
operating systems if Microsoft could agree to standards.
CORBA is there. The "new piece of paper" button is there in just
about every application, each time signifying a *typed* data item.
Does GtkAda support adding a Windows component object to an application's
data objects? Does CLAW? Can we have XParts on Windows in a GtkAda
Windows application?

I should add that I do not want to demean GtkAda.