At 09:33 AM 2/1/02 +0000, F J Franklin wrote: >Also, I know little about GUI stuff, so if anyone feels like whipping up >an interface, that would make my life a lot easier :-)
Frank, The most important step in deciding on a GUI would be to figure out the intended scope of the product: - who will use it, - what they'll use it for, and thus - what it will do, and most importantly - what it *won't* do. As Dom pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are lots and lots of vector-drawing programs out there we could use as models. For example, the following user populations may have very different needs: - geeks who use Visio to draw cloud diagrams of networks - CAD professionals who build wireframe blueprints - professional illustrators who create pretty clip art - etc. The important thing here will be to choose wisely among a wide range of possible feature sets, so that the final experience is coherent for whichever set of users you've chosen to make happiest. In *their* minds, the final UI should Just Work, period. And no, off the cuff, I don't have any suggestions of what that UI would be. It's been a long time since I've used a vector-drawing program. ;-) However, to get the ball rolling, I *would* suggest that the intended user be an AbiWord user. What would they expect of a "vector drawing" package? What comparable products, if any, are they using now? Etc. Paul, GUI fanatic
