Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
Gentle Haskellers
This message is to invite offers to complete a promising port of the Clean Object I/O library to Haskell.
As you know, there are quite a few GUI toolkits for Haskell, but none of them has become a de-facto standard. One confusing aspect is that there are different "levels": (see http://haskell.org/libraries/#guigs)
I had hoped for a lively debate following this post, but so far there has not been a single response. So let me ask a few questions.
* Strangely, there are very few "in the middle" systems. One might hope for an interface that was somewhat independent of the low-level library, and somewhat more Haskell friendly, than the low-level veneers, but not as ambitious as the high-level systems. ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What's wrong with "ambitious" high-level systems. Is something amiss with their basic ideas or is it the nuts and bolts? Are they too slow? Too big? Too abstract? In short, why is there a need to avoid the high level and go for "in-the-middle" systems? I am still so new to Haskell that I have no opinion in the matter, and if Simon's comments reflect some hard learned lessons about GUIs, I am curious to know what they are. It might, after all, be simpler to continue developing (say) FranTk, than to start all over again with the Clean Object I/O Library, for which there may or may not emerge volunteers who will complete the port. -- Tore