writing a GUI for an app running under Linux 1546

Thanks everyone for your answers. I posted the same request to a few groups whenever I thought it could be relevant. The result is that Qt seems to be the way to go. And i guess it's okay ;-)

Although I am really astonished that the GUI topic doesn't take more importance in the programming community. Most of what we do with a computer when we use it, has to deal somehow with the user interface ! Why is that (it seems to me at least) the most painful thing to do from a programing point of view ?

Why can it be decided of a library for example that would implement common functions like "createWindow" "createButton", etc... and let Microsoft or Apple do the bridge between that library and their own operating system (so a window as Windows look if you compile under Windows, and a Aqua look if you compile it under Mac). The coder would be very happy and I don't see why Windows or Apple would see that as a threat... ? (or would they).

I am really just an amateur compared to what a lot of you know about computers, operating system and software development but still don't understand why that the whole community is not crying out loud that this just ridiculous... (how painful it is to deal with GUI programing)...

Am I just really stupid-naive or is there something big that i am missing. Again I am not complaining or saying that I know better. I would like to understand why such a crucial thing doesn't have more attention paid to it ...

Thanks again everyone -Mark