Here's another experiment with datastructure-based GUI replacements. As with Chris (with his recent excellent "expanding GUI" concept), I'm a big big fan of hiding complexity, and I also like keeping details and interaction "in context", as in, somehow connected to or growing from the control you're manipulating. Apple's doing this tons lately, e.g., the new iLife http://blog.cocoia.com/2009/01/07/iwork-ilife-09-ui-roundup/ ("HUD panel changes" is the only pic I can find, but there are many more examples in the new iMovie videos @ http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/).
So, this is a simple context-bubble sketch: dragging the slider reveals a bubble with two different interpretations of the slider's value. With the new "click" message, these could me more than transient datalayers, and could graduate to being actual interactive controls.
The biggest problem with this example is that the bounding box of the GOP needs to be bigger than the control to give room for the context popup to appear, meaning every control has a giant black rectangular halo. It would be really awesome if there was a way to hide that box, just like IOhannes added the option to hide the object name and arguments.
Another really nice addition to DS would be variable opacity, so when I do a filledpolygon I can specify 9005 as the color to get a transparent red rather than just 900. That would be of great use for both these context bubbles as well as, say, a sample range selection box where you can still see the sample data under the selection. And as ever, a way to specify a persistent z-index for DS is pretty essential for any complex use.
Okee, that's all for the moment Best Luke