I recently came across a less common approach to this problem. From the StackOverflow Podcast #41:
Atwood: ...the classic UNIX way of developing a GUI was you start with a command-line app, which has a defined set of inputs and outputs, pipes, basically text going in and out of it.Seems like an interesting solution, especially if your target audience is expert users who may prefer a command-line application anyway.
Spolsky: A lot of command-line arguments.
Atwood: And then you put a GUI on top of that, so then you have perfect separation. You don't necessarily have a great app which is the deeper problem, but you have perfect separation, because you can test the command line independently...
Unknowingly, this is the approach I took with my Batch Photo Editor. From the beginning, it was designed to be a command-line application. This allowed me to focus on the core logic of the application and not have to worry about presentation. Later, I will always have the option of adding a GUI, in which case I would get the business-presentation separation for free.
The downside of this approach is that, if you're not careful, the resulting GUI may be nothing more than a wrapper around your original command-line interface. If your main goal is an extremely user-friendly GUI, perhaps you're better off with UI-First Development. When possible, though, it's refreshing to be able to focus on the actual code that you're writing and not the syntax to wire up a button click handler.
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