"More research into ImGUI style UIs could lead to huge gains in productivity."
Don't tell this cat that the research on this stuff goes back >40 years and that the introductory chapter of any book on computer graphics would have talked about all of this. Not like it would help him - he hasn't read anything about it, didn't even do a cursory Google search. Sheesh. A low, low bar.
One of my favorite is "Don't Fidget with Widgets, Draw!" (https://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/WRL-91-6.pdf) It's modern enough to be understandable, and while it's referencing Ezd (a Scheme drawing system) it greatly influenced Tk (which is still used in all kinds of heavy-hitting EDA software).
That one's only been around for 28 years though (well, the paper was published in 1991, so code was before that...) but let's go further:
Which if you haven't watched MOAD before, give it a spin. It will still blow your mind, but the interactive graphical drawing mechanisms will be recognizable.
Also, this "paint the screen every time" method is how a tremendous number of people who cut their teeth on DOS did things on the screen. DOS release date: 1981. So you don't have to have been an academic (which I am NOT) to have tried these techniques while solving practical problems.
As far as books:
Computer Graphics
Principles and Practice in C (later editions use C#/C++/etc. - the ideas are the same)
The 1995/96 one talks about retained mode graphics directly. That book has been standard in "intro computer graphics" courses for as long as it's been out. So at least 20+ years it's been the "start here" book.
