My side project is a fairly complex GUI application written in Clojure. Recently, I've become irritated with using Java interop for everything. It's not that Clojure doesn't have nice java interop - it does. It's just that when interacting with a GUI framework, which is a large part of my app, I have to be back in mutable object-oriented land, worrying about class hierarchies, mutable state, locks, etc. Yucky.
So, with a perhaps dangerous lack of sanity and without any guarantee of success, I've decided to try my hand at writing an idiomatic Clojure GUI library. If I have success (which I doubt) I will of course make it available as open source. I intend for it to be mostly declarative, with a nice DSL for defining GUI elements. Each component will also implement map, and use one of Clojure's reference types as an interface for inspecting / updating its state. I may also implement some aspects of Functional Reactive Programming wherever it's convenient to do so. What you all must help me decide is what GUI framework to use as the underpinnings of it. It's genuinely hard to decide. I have at least some experience with all of them, so I have no strong preference, but I'd like to get your input. I did consider trying to make it abstract enough that you could plug in *any* of them under the hood, but there's enough differences between the frameworks that that would get very ugly very fast. Possibilities are: AWT Pros: native widgets, bundled with Java, low-level Cons: few widgets, considered somewhat obselete Swing Pros: bundled with Java, good widget selection Cons: non-native widgets SWT Pros: native widgets, widely used Cons: requires platform-specific libs QT Jambi Pros: native widgets, huge widget selection, highly-regarded framework Cons: requires platform-specific libs, writing custom widgets is hairy, momentum and support seem to be lagging since Nokia dropped official support. Remember, the actual API won't matter - that will be completely abstracted away. So try to focus on the framework's look and feel. Also let me know if I've missed any of the framework's key characteristics. Thanks! -Luke -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
