Could Tk be D's ideal widget set?

[Don Clugston]

Jeff wrote:
>> I think a GUI for D should be written with D in mind from the start.
>> I didn't look at tk/tcl/whatever-it-is-called, but just when you say 
>> that it's written in C, this says to me it's not what D should adopt 
>> as an official gui library.
>>
>> Having said that, I'm personally of the opinion that Harmonia is the 
>> GUI library that has the most potential.
> 
> I agree; I can understand that people want GUI libraries for D available 
> as soon as possible, and indeed there are people working on such 
> projects (i.e. D bindings, ports and/or OO abstractions for existing 
> toolkits). However, if we really want some thing /good/ and maintainable 
> that can really take advantage of D's features, then starting from 
> scratch seems like the best path to me.

> Even if progress was to be fairly slow, surely I'm not the only one who 
> would be enthused enough by such a project to maintain interest? 
> Remember, this wouldn't rule out using other toolkits in the meantime, 
> but could also provide us with a /really/ good one in the long run.

[snip]
> - The will to Do It Right, no matter how long it takes. We should be in 
> this for the long haul.

I agree, although I'd phrase it differently. It's not about taking a 
long time to do it, it's about spending most of your time on the 
fundamentals. It seems to me that the D language has progressed by 
spending a lot of time getting the basics right. It's like building an 
80-storey building -- for most of the construction time, it's just a 
really deep hole in the ground, and to onlookers it seems that nothing 
much is happening. Yet, once the foundations are in, the building can 
rise by 10 metres in a day. Look how quickly the D template system has 
developed. It was only possible because so much time was spent getting 
the basics right.

I think that a GUI library should be similar.

> Does anyone else think it would be worth it, or are most people content 
> to try to tap into existing toolkits through D?