🚀 go-pugleaf

>>> Consider what a builder tool really is supposed to do for you.

>>> Is it a way to maintain code?
>>Not sure what you mean. It's a way to produce code that is manitainable.
Yes 

>>> a way to produce lots of code quickly?
>>It's a way to build user interfaces quickly.
Yes

>>> a way to have a cross-platform solution?
>>No.
I disagree - look at something like X-Designer (www.ist.co.uk). It can
produce code for Motif, Windows (MFC) and Java interfaces from the same
design. This produces as near as possible the same interface on each
platform - which is, of coure, not what you might want, since the
interface models are different and you might actually want a different
interface on each platform. 

>There are two main approaches to user-interface builders that are
>relevant here:

>a) Template generator.
[description deleted]

>b) GUI maintainer. 
[description deleted]

X-Designer goes some way to doing this. It has built in facilities to
"capture" existing interface designs without having access to the source
of the interface. 
Most GUI builders are only Template generators - X-Designer does try to
do more.

>These sorts of tools are really tough to build, and are often *VERY*
>expensive.  The "definitive" X/Motif tool is such a tool, and costs on
>the order of $10K per seat.  (That means that if there are 100
>developers, you get to spend a million dollars on this...)

X-Designer is about one third of that price, and experience shows that
if your development team is 100, then you don't actually need anywhere
near 100 licenses.

I suggest that if you are serious about GUI building you should check
out X-Designer - go look at www.ist.co.uk and then contact IST (in Palo
Alto, CA, USA and Reading UK)
Regards

Alan Sandell