I've recently been (mentally) exploring some potential user interfaces, and 
thought up one that I'd like to implement if it is possible.  The problem is 
that I don't know much about OpenGL, or NSTextView/NSTextContainer, so I need 
to bounce my questions off of people with knowledge/experience.

For the first thing I want to do, I want to be able to float lines/arrows 
'above' the text in a text view.  The idea is that I can have related items all 
be linked together by a floating starfish-like set of arrows.  The reason for 
the levels is that more local things can be at a lower level, and more global 
things at a higher level.  A concrete use of this would be for something like 
use-def chains in a program; the more local the use-defs are, the lower level 
the arrows are.  As you scroll the text, you get an immediate feel for how 
wide-ranging variables are from how high above the text they float.

For the next thing, I want to be able to deform the text view in the z 
dimension.  Basically, I want to be looking 'down' onto stairsteps of text.  A 
concrete use of this would be to show the depth of the statements in various 
blocks, like the following:

int main (void)                 // At highest level
{                       
        if (foo)                        // One level lower
                printf("foo");  // One level lower
}                               // At highest level

Now, before everyone gives me alternatives that are doable within what 
NSTextView does right now, please understand that the above are examples ONLY; 
there are other possible uses of this kind of technique, and I'd like a chance 
to explore them, not find alternatives that also work.  I really want to know 
if I can do exactly what I've described above.

So, can I do it, or is it impossible?

Thanks,
Cem Karan
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