Re: [gtk-list] Q's: Animation & GTK Markup Language

["Peter C. de Tagyos" <pdetagyos worldnet att net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Dawes <philipd@parallax.co.uk>
To: gtk-list@redhat.com <gtk-list@redhat.com>
Date: Thursday, April 09, 1998 5:10 AM
Subject: [gtk-list] Q's: Animation & GTK Markup Language


>1) Is anybody working on a programming-language-neutral metalanguage to
>describe gtk user interfaces? I think this would be very useful for the
>basis for static gui builders seeing as we now have so many languages to
>cater for.
>e.g. GUI builder drops the description file, then back-end parsers can
>either translate the description into native sourcecode for the various
>languages, or interpret the description at runtime and provide hooks
>back to the client program (ala visual basic.)
>Perhaps a markup language written in XML could be a good idea?


Phil,

I have recently begun designing a GUI-Builder/IDE for GNOME applications.  I
plan for the initial release to target C applications written against GTK+,
but my goal is to support not only other language bindings for GTK+, but
other widget toolsets as well.

To accomplish this, a system will need to be devised such as the one you
describe above.  I plan to have a .GUI file for each "form" begin designed.
This file will be an ASCII file which contains a persistant snapshot of the
form layout.  If you have used VB before, I am thinking along the lines of
what is found in the .frm files.

I have yet to really think about what the form should contain, and how to
structure the file.  I would be happy to work with you or anyone else in
designing a format for a GUI layout file.  I would also be happy to work on
implementing a parser for such a beast.

If you want to see the project that I am working on, check out
http://home.att.net/~pdetagyos/GUIDE

I would be grateful for any help or suggestions you may give.

Peter
pdetagyos@worldnet.att.net