[kilon]

You would want it because its implemented in Pharo and because Pharo allow you to easily hack the system that means you can make the interface look any way you want without having to mess with C libraries. Also being Pharo it is part of the live system and it also push pharo development towards visual coding. As someone else pointed out already Pharo is a virtual OS, so having its own GUI API part of its very powerful live enviroment is very crucial. You can use external GUI APIs but you lose the ability to live code them which is what is the main goal of Pharo anyway. Personally I love the look of the user interface and even though there is dated MacOS theme I prefer using this theme. But one can create any theme he wants if looks are that important to him.

[lispm]

It's beyond my understanding why non-native windows, buttons, menus, etc. are a requirement for 'live-coding' or 'visual coding'.

[kilon]

its not, but on the other hand, existing GUI APIs are not live coding friendly nor made in Pharo ;) Also the moment you want to change something or hack something , welcome to C++ hell. You sacrifice native look and powerful features, you get a live easy to hack system in return. But as I said Pharo DOES NOT forbid you from using Native libraries of any sort, including GUI. The fact that the vast majority of pharo developers choose not to use native gui apis, says a lot about how desirable GUI APIs are compared to "non native look" Pharo GUI API which is called Morphic :)

[lispm]

Compare with for example this Lisp application:

http://opusmodus.com/user-interface.html

A new UI, but using tons of native elements...

[kilon]

Why talk about a music app that a small amount of people use while we can talk about the most popular pro music apps out there. The kind of apps that the whole music industry is based on. Cubase , Ableton Live, Logic and Reason.

Guess what .... they all have custom GUIs

http://rekkerd.org/img/201404/prop_reason71.jpg http://www.highprofileaudio.com/LogicPro_BIG1.jpg http://static.kvraudio.com/i/b/cubase5.jpg http://soundista.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Ableton.png

When it comes to music and graphics, there is not even a contest. Custom GUI win hearts of the users. Same story with mobile apps and web apps.

As matter of fact even some of the apps that do use Native GUIs they reject the native look using their own custom look at least to an extend.

And the native look goes more and more towards popular custom guis we see in web apps, like flat design etc etc.

[lispm]

None of them uses its own Window system.

[kilon]

actually all of them do use their own Window system and far more than that.