[seanalltogether]

I think the author is over exaggerating the problem of object creation and destruction in traditional gui frameworks. List/collection views are designed to reuse objects as you scroll. Secondly I think the author is also downplaying the fact that retained GUIs can also cache object rendering. Just as the gpu doesn't have to draw the whole screen when only the cursor is blinking, it also doesn't have to redraw widgets unless their size changes.

Immediate vs retained is a simple case of budgeting against cpu usage or memory usage, and it should be considered in that light. (immediate uses more processing, retained uses more memory)

[charlesetc]

Thinking about this decision just as a performance one disregards the fact that the code is substantially different. It does seems likely that one way is more intuitive / easier to work with than the other, I wouldn't know which though.

[gmueckl]

It depends on the probkem younare trying to solve with your GUI, I suppose. Sometimes, it is better to just recreate the whole GUI to adapt to a model change (e.g. the user moved half of the tree nodes somewhere else), sometimes it is easier/faster/... to just update the existing GUI (e.g. update the text of a label inside a complex dialog widget).