[replying in GUI only]
I believe that haskell would have great benifit from a platform independant specification for a graphical user interface module or set of modules. I've been
Absolutely!
blessed with a lot of time on my hands so I'd be willing to organize this project if needed.
That would be great.
1. Platform independance: The QT widget library is a stunning example of how platform independance is achievable without sacraficing speed. I am not suggesting that we build haskell-gui off of QT but might use major components of it as a model. Eventually, the library could have three backends; the Windows API, the X API (or gtk perhaps?), and the Mac API (the name illudes me at the moment).
Why do you suggest basing it on QT? Gtk is also platform-independent (Unix and Win32), and there are already two Haskell bindings for it. I think neither QT nor Gtk are appropriate as a basis for designing a standard Haskell GUI - they are both specific toolkits, with loads of features specific to each. A standard GUI will have to be fairly minimal, so it can be easily implemented on top of several toolkits. The beginnings of the last go at a standard GUI library are documented here: http://haskell.org/communities/11-2001/html/report.html#sect4.3.1 Thanks for your prompting and offer of time! It would be great to get this off the ground. Cheers, --KW 8-)