Standard GUI (stdgui)

Create a graphical user interface,
    With your favorite language,
		That looks native,
			On any platform,
				And do it quickly!

Background

Why is it that writing a GUI program is so much more complex than writing a console program? Console user interfaces are so darn simple:

• You output text through stdout.
• You read text from stdin.
• Arguments are passed to you in a string array.
• All major platforms and programming languages support this, out-of-the-box! No additional libraries required.

So, if you wish to write a program, and you want it to be as portable as possible, writing a console program is the simplest solution.

Things are not so simple with GUI programs. Here's a list of things that must be considered:

• What language am I working in? Which GUI toolkits have bindings for my language?
• What platform(s) am I targeting? Which toolkits are supported on these platforms?
• How can I make my program look and feel like a native program?
• How do I do X with my chosen toolkit?
• Why are the language bindings incomplete and poorly documented?
• Does my GUI meet accessibility standards for all platforms?
• Why am I writing so much code just for a GUI!

You get the point. Creating a cross platform GUI program is not simple. Perhaps we can change this. I don't think there's any technical reason we cannot have some sort of abstract, standardized GUI programming model as ubiquitous as stdin/stdout. We just have to make a few concessions:

• We must give up power and flexibility in order to gain simplicity and portability.
• Avoid the huge API, "toolkit" paradigm and instead use a specialized middle-man language to define the GUI.

So, if you need to write an advanced GUI program, look elsewhere, stdgui is not for you. However if you want to write a portable GUI program with minimal fuss, stdgui is the solution.

Read more

TODO: the above really belongs in a separate document. The readme is for getting people started quickly.