Currently I am working on Hyperion a vector graphics editor with similar goals to inkscape and gimp . The second step will be to use Hyperion as a GUI designer, not just to drag and drop ready made widgets but to design from scratch new ones. The third step is to create a GUI api so that those widgets will be accessed from code via a GUI API that I have named Morpheas. The forth step is to take all that and redesign the look (just the look not the internals) of Pharo making it more user friendly and approachable including several tools into a project I have named Ephestos.�
I like the general idea of everything being a morph a simple building block that allows you to build complex , custom guis. I am also thinking providing a super simple GUI API and offering sophisticated widgets as external libraries. In sort my goal is minimalism and customisation.�
All of this will be �based on Athens which is what I already use for Hyperion.�
This is the final look that aiming for to offer as a default look , but of course because it will be based on Athens and will offer a powerful designer any look will be possible.�
Currently I just started Hyperion and I work at creating lines with Athens and editing them graphically like inkscape. I hope that after 6 months to finish the basic vector graphic editing capabilities and move to GUI design so that by 2015 I have version 1 to offer that will be able to do both. Of course this will be a way more long term project than just one year but for now I take it step by step , day by day and see where it takes me.�
Because it is based on Athens I can bypass spec and even morphic completely and offer my own GUI API, however that will make it hard for people already having projects in those APIs to move to mine and since spec looks like the future of Pharo I am seriously considering spec as well. It will also save me the trouble of designing my own GUI API which is of course a big plus. My own concern is how morphic friendly spec is, meaning that I want to see everything as a composition of simpler elements and not monolithic widgets. From what I have seen from some tutorials this seems to be the direction you go with this, but maybe you could illuminate that area abit more for me.�
I will also be interested to hear where you want to take spec, what you will like to add etc.�