sightings in the mists of the sea of ghosts

Its been a strange turn of events. I was speaking to Bashar and explained why a computer programmer was so passionately interested in developing user interfaces. I think he got it when I said that it was the development of the first graphical user interfaces that helped drive the development of the first object orientated languages.

I was recording a podcast yesterday when afterwards richardwalker and simon got on to the subject of annotations in Java. He also talked about all the code that a good GUI builder adds to let you simply add code into you objects.

I just had a odd thought. If I started with a blank sheet of paper and wrote down what I wanted in a simple graphical user interface could I think of a way of creating the facilities for a languages that would make the description that small.

Naturally for me I want the interface to say four things.
1. What the interface 'looks like'
2. What the interface does
3. The text for the user explaining what the interface is (help file/user guide).
4. The text for the programmer explaining what the user interface is doing ( programming documentation like java doc.)

I feel like Admiral Hopper (inventing cobol)