[barrettcolin]

I'd read up on the concepts behind Immediate Mode GUIs; here's a handy tutorial: http://sol.gfxile.net/imgui/

You trade some flexibility and input latency for a simple imperative structure that is easy to implement.

[corysama]

Here's a little more info on the subject. video presentation: http://mollyrocket.com/861 discussion: http://mollyrocket.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=134

[barrettcolin]

You might also find this useful: http://jet.ro/2007/08/13/immediate-mode-graphical-user-inter...