[Python-3000] GUI -- an API, not a toolkit

[Talin]

Giovanni Bajo wrote:

> But, if Java *really* did it, let's *copy* it. My point is exactly that: Qt
> *did* it, so let's use it. wxWidgets does *exactly* what you want: it's a
> common abstraction over different native toolkit libraries. wxPython is very
> widespread and accepted by the community. Why oh why redesigning something from
> scratch.

Qt, Java Swing, and .Net Windows.Forms are all examples of what I would 
consider "good" API designs. All three of them are powerful, 
comprehensive, and have relatively clean APIs. I would be perfectly 
satisfied to have the equivalent of any one of them in the Python space.

Given a choice, I would probably choose Windows.Forms as a model, mainly 
because it's the newest (and smallest) of the three, and seems to have 
taken some lessons from the design of the others. However, any of them 
would be a good starting point.

Which is not to say that we would need a system that has every feature 
that those systems support. As much as I love drawing with PathGradient, 
I don't expect to be able to do it cross-platform.
	
(Just so you know where I am coming from - I think I've used almost two 
dozen different UI frameworks over the years, not counting the half 
dozen or so I've created for different employers, going all the way back 
to the days of the Amiga. [Anyone remember "Gadtools"? Or the Commodore 
Installer?])

-- Talin