In other words, if you want a cross-platform GUI toolkit, simply restrict yourself to one platform and you can have it ??

I know there is a book out about programming user interfaces in XUL, but honestly, I don't really see that XUL is the way to go, if it dosen't support Win32 or Mac, as these two platforms are the platforms where the users are.

For Win32, there actually is something like XUL btw, called HTA (HTML Application) - IE displays these in a window of their own, and you can program them in JavaScript (and propably PerlScript as well), or you can simply use the HTA as your user interface and have your main program docked to the application via Win32::OLE WithEvents.

But don't propose yet another open source brainchild that is supposed to be there-in-the-next-release. At least Linux celebrates the 5th year in sequence of "next year Linux will be ready for the desktop".

perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ;    # The  
$d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider
($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new   #in the
HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' #  web
[download]

In other words, if you want a cross-platform GUI toolkit, simply restrict yourself to one platform and you can have it ??

XUL/XPCOM is cross platform, its the perl bindings that are not.

XPCOM is what powers Mozilla, Netscape, Komodo - This is not a OS fad.
What you describe with HTA, is a lightweight hack in comparison. XPCOM works similarly to COM, but is available on any platform that has a Mozilla port. plXPCOM supports two-way communication - from any mozilla/gecko based application out to perl, and from perl out to any XPCOM component. This is powerful stuff.
But the mailing list for plXPCOM is empty. I havn't heard anyone mention either xul or xpcom in the perl community. Python and Java already have bindings.

In other words, lets get this thing made as Perl needs it (and maybe it needs perl). I cant program in C++ and dont know perl internals, spreading the word is the best i have to offer. I know there are people on these boards who are up to this, and could make this happen.


time was, I could move my arms like a bird and...

Popping up XUL content from Perl would indeed be cool, if the project were far enough along to be available via PPM (in ActiveState Perl) and CPAN (other platforms), and if installing that package (either the PPM or the CPAN package) would be adequate without separately installing other stuff. (Not that Mozilla isn't needed on every computer anyway, but that's a separate issue.) It's a very cool idea, certainly...

But developing on it would mean working in heinous languages like C++, and I have no interest in doing that. A wrapper around existing modules, however, like I was talking about, could be done all in Perl, and while it would be a huge stretch for me (I have not yet written a module of any complexity in Perl...) and I couldn't do it alone and would probably end up with no more than a proof of concept before handing it off, it nevertheless interests me to some extent.

for(unpack("C*",'GGGG?GGGG?O__\?WccW?{GCw?Wcc{?Wcc~?Wcc{?~cc'
.'W?')){$j=$_-63;++$a;for$p(0..7){$h[$p][$a]=$j%2;$j/=2}}for$
p(0..7){for$a(1..45){$_=($h[$p-1][$a])?'#':' ';print}print$/}
[download]

Popping up XUL content from Perl would indeed be cool, if the project were far enough along to be available via PPM and CPAN
me thinks it would be more than cool ;)

I understand what you are saying - my rant wasn't specifically directed at you, sorry!
I am surprised and dissappointed that the perl community isn't all over this like a fat kid on skittles.
A slick, efficient GUI, Cross language components and no XS - Mozilla's technologies are a godsend, especially for interpretted languages.


time was, I could move my arms like a bird and...