Scriptable GUI?

[Anthony W. Juckel]

I'm realizing that there are some more changes that I would like to make 
to the qif import process, but, again, since I don't want to  be 
dogmatic and force my will upon everyone, I would like to do it by way 
of user-centric customization.  Basically, I'd like to re-work the gui 
for selecting matching transactions.  I've already mocked up a quick 
interface for it (no code though, just the look, and I don't have a 
website to put it up on, nor did I want to post an image file as an 
attachment to the list, so if anyone would like to see it, let me know 
so I can send it directly to you), but I'm not sure exactly how I could 
put that in place.  (GUI programming is one area that I really have yet 
to break into, so bear with me, and please correct me, if I'm completely 
wrong in my ideas).

There are two ways I could see to accomplish this:  1)  Rewrite the 
entire qif import druid as a seperate component, then try to, using 
guile, tell gnucash to use my version, rather than the system version, 
or 2)  Alter gnucash to use libglade and allow for user-supplied xml 
files, and simply modify the single page in the druid that I'm concerned 
with, again, working out all the necessary call-backs in guile.  There 
are problems with both approaches, as I see it.  With approach 1, there 
is a lot of duplicating of work, and I'm not sure that it is even 
possible to use guile to substitute in user-specified GUI code.  With 
approach 2, there is a fair amount of work (I would assume..I haven't 
looked into it more than superficially so far) needed to be done to the 
core system just to put GUI customizability in place (unless I've missed 
something, and it is already possible).

So, could anyone wiser than I help me decide which of these paths would 
be the appropriate path to follow (or suggest another direction 
entirely, if there is something else more reasonable)?

Anthony W. Juckel