Create high-level UI widget library

[Victor Malov <malvikus gmail com>]

Hello everyone!

From this [https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/issues/202] talk in GTK bug tracker I was advised to move discussion to this mail list.

I think there is need for some high-level UI library, based on GTK, which will provide ready-to-use widgets for Gnome Desktop and applications willing tightly integrate into Gnome.

The reasons for this are the following:

1. Gnome has it's own vision about UX experience and default way to do things. To follow these principles will require involving designers. Which is almost never happens for most open-source applications. This leads to simplified and ugly design with simple controls (where more advanced are more suitable). Example: I'm sure Shotwell and other apps would be willing to utilize map widget from Gnome Control Center > Details > Date and Time > Time Zone) to filter photos by geo-locations.

2. It will give ability for more tight apps integration into Gnome.

3. Instead of reinventing similar widgets all around different Gnome apps, gives unified and reusable set.

4. Choice for developers - create their custom widgets or use default ones.

5. Creating some widgets requires a fair amount of time, at least for those who never came across with that.

6. GTK as it's own is quite low-level library for creating UI rich applications.

For example, I want to provide map widget to filter photos by geolocation. And instead of just use existing I have to dig into all Gnome apps trying to find out similar widget (I found them in Gnome Control Center > Details > Date and Time > Time Zone, it's a dialog widget showing map), then download source code, delve into plain C language (my app is using Python), build (which was problem), debug, etc, analyze how this widget works, etc. 

It's all very time consuming and makes me reinventing wheel.

--

Victor Malov