🚀 go-pugleaf

Setting standards is an excellent idea but, as someone pointed out, standards
tend to be set by majority usage (i.e. most people use it, so we'll say
everyone should) and, occasionally, by one method/whatever that is clearly
the best (and we know how "clear" things are to everyone, right?).

I could see GNU (or even a private programmer) writing something similar to
AT&T's cfront (which converts C++ to standard C which can then be compiled
by the built-in UNIX cc for whatever machine) which will take source code and
translate standard (i.e. whatever the translator's author wanted it to be) GUI
toolbox calls into the appropriate calls for Motif, Open Look, or whatever.
Either there would be a different version for each available GUI (even MS
Windows and Macintosh, perhaps) or simply a switch (-Motif, -ODT, -OL, etc.)
to translate the translator calls into actual GUI calls.

A more complex translator could have a visual editor for dialogs and menus,
like ResEdit for the Mac (I believe there are similar things for Motif and/or
Open Look), and have that editting written as code. Furthermore, OOP GUI calls
could be supported, if someone were willing to write such a thing. Such a
tool could set that standard everyone is searching for by simply being the
best thing around; thoroughly portable to all (supported) platforms, and (if
done well) easy to use. Any thoughts?

--Greg (peers at the flames on the horizon...)