[GUI] Proposal Proposal: haskell-gui addendum to haskell standard

[Nick Name]

I think that we have two alternatives:

1. Design the standard haskell GUI library as a mid-level, IO based
library, in wich code would look like the following:

	win <- newWindow "Hello world"
	btn <- newButton "Bye"
	insert win btn
	onClick btn (close btn)

and then design a high-level interface, because the IO based approach
uncomfortable.

2. Directly plan the high-level interface, and create backends for it
onto the various platforms.

In both cases, don't forget that the gtk and gtk2 bindings are in an
advanced state, and they already handle signals. I guess that those
would be the first two "platforms" onto wich implement the library.

Also, remember that both gtk and gtk2 are available on windows, macos,
linux and freebsd.

Regarding the high-level interface, first of all: it HAS to come.
There's no real utility in a language like haskell if mainly used in the
IO monad.

We have many examples of declarative user interfaces (FRAN appears the
to me, but it's just an opinion), and I think that a declarative UI
would exploit the power of a declarative language, really speeding up
the development of robust applications.

Now, stated that it has to come, and considering that the gtk and gtk2
bindings already implement an IO based approach, perhaps the best thing
to do would be to design the high level library, with use cases, and
work on it until we find a reasonable model.

Then we can implement that model on everything we want, qt, gtk,
windows, macos etc.

Another idea that is always present in my mind: we could also adopt a
document model, for example the new standardized XML models that are
coming from sun and other major companies cooperation around openoffice.

This model could be implemented as an user interface, and would ease
printing and cut and paste between different applications.

Vincenzo