[GUI] Re: Gtk and Object I/O

[Wolfgang Jeltsch]

On Friday, 2003-01-24, 16:22, CET, Adrian Hey wrote:
> [...]

> 1- What does this low level code do that requires it to be written in C=
? I
> can't think of any particular reason for this other than speed, and I c=
an't
> think of anywhere a gui really needs speed other than for rendering. (B=
ut
> that can't be so because, as everybody keeps telling me, writing our ow=
n
> portable rendering code is a really bad idea :-)

Hello,

I think it is really good to provide the platform-independent imperative=20
interface in C because this way it is also usable with other programming=20
languages than Haskell. This results in more people interested in develop=
ing=20
the interface and the underlying implementations. By the way, I'm heavily=
=20
interested in such a C interface also as a basis for a platform-independe=
nt=20
Ada library.

> [...]

I'd like to add that I'm really impressed by the work Krasimir, Daan and =
maybe=20
others have done in developing HToolkit. The approach of
    * developing a platform-independent C interface
    * implementing it on top of different native APIs
    * creating a thin Haskell binding to the C interface
is exactly what I favor. I haven't a detailed picture of HToolkit yet but=
 at=20
least these three points are something I'd like to see in a future standa=
rd.

I'd like to point out again that although the C interface shall be low le=
vel=20
concerning programming style (i.e., it shall be imperative) it should be =
high=20
level concerning the facilities it provides (e.g., it should provide comp=
lete=20
file selection dialogs). As Peter Achten mentioned in his mail from 2003-=
01-24=20
11:48:32 +0100, abstraction is essential.

Wolfgang