[cairo] Pure Cairo UI ?

[Fred Kiefer]

Asko Kauppi wrote:
> 
> Is there still no "pure Cairo" UI project, anywhere?  Sort of a  window
> manager (not necessarily windows, in the traditional 2D  meaning..) that
> would sit on top of the Cairo graphics engine, and  manage multiple apps
> using Cairo for their graphics output.
> 
> Googling for +cairo +UI gives lots of NT4.0 mentions... yeap. :!
> 
> So, am I just asking the wrong question, or is the question okay but  a
> bit too early?  Is my analogy of Cairo==Quartz2D, and Aqua==the  missing
> link right?
> 

Perhaps I am putting to much emphasis on your Quartz/Aqua analogy. I
don't know of an Aqua equivalent based on cairo, but I have an
intermediat solution to offer: GNUstep with the cairo backend.

GNUstep (www.gnustep.org) could be regarded as the equivalent to Cocoa,
which Aqua builds on top of. There are currently quite a few open
problems with GNUstep based on cairo. For example I never did get my
head around copying from one surface to another (or worse to the same
one). Currently this code should be regarded as alpha, but it should not
be to hard to fix the remaining problems with cairo.

As a GNUstep backend encapsulates all the drawing for a GNUstep
application, all GNUstep applications are "pure cairo UI". There is even
GWorkspace, a work place manager. There are also a few attemps on window
managers using GNUstep, but these should also in alpha state.

Fred