One more interesting example of XML based GUI system that avoids most of the problems listed above is HaxeUI. The same way as Qt it solves them using compile ti

One more interesting example of XML based GUI system that avoids most of the problems listed above is HaxeUI. The same way as Qt it solves them using compile time code generation. Accessing objects from code is not a problem due to compile time code generation, no findById just access the field. Due to the powerful macro system in Haxe you even get in code autocomplete for objects defined in xml before running compilation. For code reuse it allows easy way of defining custom widget classes based on xml file and using custom widgets in xml file. In my experience with Qt bloat usually comes from graphical editors that add unnecessary properties you wouldn't have set in code or GUI systems that don't support creating reusable subcomponents.