GUI Library Task Force

[Sengan]

"Manuel M. T. Chakravarty" wrote:

> * After this, the main difference that remains is the
>   representation of GUI components as a vanilla data type
>   instead of opaque handles that do not make the structure
>   of the components explicit in the types (like the TupLS
>   does).  From the paper, it wasn't clear to me how useful
>   that is for the application programmer.

It seems to me that making GUI components data-types helps:

-- allowing users change the layout of their app so that they
   can format the information the app provides according to
   their needs. Simple example from a debugger: allow the user
   to associate regions of code (or instructions from the instruction
   stream) with displaying of the FPU registers on the screen.

-- saving/restoring the layout of the app as customized by the
   user.

Sengan