[GUI] ANNOUNCE: Specification for abstract user interface for Windows, GNOME and Aqua

Axel Simon A.Simon@kent.ukc.ac
Sun, 10 Aug 2003 17:14:16 +0200


On Sunday, Aug 10, 2003, at 10:11 Europe/Paris, Krasimir Angelov wrote:
...
>  For toolbars I already have some ideas.
> In the time being I work against time on the toolbars
> for Windows. I think that we need a common abstraction
> for toolbar items and for menu items. The idea is that
> the toolbar and menu item which are related to one and
> the same command must share the same bitmap, title and
> tooltip.

A word of warning: I don't think we should abstract where it isn't 
possible. That only makes the CGA more complex and it will be more 
difficult for high-level approaches like Fudgets to build on CGA. In 
particular I don't see a reason why there need to be a common 
abstraction for menu items and toolbars. But it would be nice if the 
user can add the standard menu entries like "Save" and the 
corresponding icon in the toolbar at the same time.

I am still looking through your document and I am picking up some 
things which I have missed so far. Still I guess we should try to 
formalize an API without any bias towards a specific binding. I will 
try to be more specific by giving an example.

Axel.