[Tfug] Poor man's GUI

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

I've got a little application that has a metric buttload of
configuration options that are required to drive it (by
comparison, GCC's command line options are a big yawn!).

I would like to be able to throw together a "dialog" to
allow the user to quickly/easily/CONFIDENTLY pick the options
he's interested in.  And, "somehow" convey those choices to the
application.

Did I mention *lots* of options?  Obviously, they have to be
presented in groups just to keep the cognitive loading within
reason.  And, ideally, annotate each option with something
descriptive instead of cryptic abbreviations that assume the
user is already expert in the application's use!

And, I'd like to come up with a portable solution so I don't have
to recreate the user interface for each platform.  Nor rely on
some bloated "graphic library".

ISTM, that I should be able to make a little interactive "web page"
to present everything.  Just use standard HTML widgets (text,
listboxes, check boxes, etc.).  So, the "web page" would be largely
portable (in the sense that any browser would display it in
roughly the same way).  The browser would handle the implementation
of the GUI widgets without me having to write any event handlers
(onclick, mouseup, etc.)

But, IF I DON'T WANT TO BACK THIS WITH ANY JAVA (because that forces
the browser to have Java installed), how can I present the "completed
form" to the application ("Click 'Submit' to run the application")?
I.e., there's no server hiding behind it (that would be an even
bigger requirement than requiring Java).

One possible idea that comes to mind, if the user opts to "save as"
the web page, will the current states of all widgets be saved in the
target file?

I.e., if the file I present (with options set to some default state)
is called Input.html, after the user has messed with the options
and saved it as Output.html, will the two files *differ*?  And, will
they differ in a meaningful way that *encodes* the changes he's made
to the "form"?

(Yes, I realize different browsers "save as" in different target
formats; assume I can parse these)

This seems like it would be a cheap way to get a "GUI front end"
with very little work...

Thx,
--don