ImFrame VS winlamb

If you need a quick way to start a C++ ImGui app, you can use my ImFrame library. It's essentially a C++ application wrapper around glfw + ImGUI, along with a few handy additions that applications might need, like native file and folder dialogs, automatic windows settings / persistence, etc.

If you want a demo, you can use my starter framework to see if it would work for you, or check out Implot's repository directly.

If you want a Dear Imgui "starter kit", you can try ImFrame. It packages a few libraries into a very lightweight cross-platform application framework.

If you just want an empty app in which you can play with ImGui, you can use a lightweight framework like ImFrame.

To help with this, I made a framework that makes it much easier to use like a more traditional application framework, providing a few handy features you'd expect, like native file dialogs, window position save/restore, native macOS windows, platform-appropriate settings storage, image loading, a selection of fonts, etc.

Probably the fastest way to do that is to use something like my ImFrame library, which is designed to get Dear ImGui and ImPlot up and running inside an app with minimal fuss and bother. You'll need to use CMake to build the project, but it's pretty simple, as there are batch files to build in the /Bin folder for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Dear ImGUI - Unlike the others, is designed for applications with a real-time rendering loop, such as games. Was originally designed for creating debugging UIs, although has expanded far beyond this, and is now used for full-featured applications. Requires an existing back-end to plug into. If you need an application framework for Dear ImGUI, you can use my own project ImFrame, or something similar.

I use CMake as my (meta) build system, and generate VS projects on Windows, Xcode projects on Mac, and Code::Blocks projects/makefiles on Linux. Example of one such project of mine: https://github.com/JamesBoer/ImFrame

I'm currently writing a Dear Imgui framework called ImFrame. It handles the work of creating an application loop with an appropriate renderer, using GLFW and other open source libraries, and then exposing the Dear Imgui API for your use to do what you want with it.

For example, in one of my libraries (you can see the whole thing here), I'm including the single-header library stb_image.h as a separate project, so it shows up with all the other external libraries. It's not necessary for compilation, but is just there to assist with browsing / seeing all the external libraries.

The first thing that came into my mind was: why not simply go fully native, with the aid of something like WinLamb? Often you can roll your own custom controls quicker than a cross-platform library.

With WinLamb it's trivial: just create a field in the class.

However, if you still want to go Win32, this library is a thin wrapper which may save you a lot of time (and sanity). However, it's C++, not C.

I write C++ and raw Win32 for more than 20 years. I'm the author of this, and I'm rewriting my personal stuff in Rust just for fun.

I wrote a very thin C++11 wrapper for Win32 a few years ago, in case you're interested: WinLamb. It won't do everything, it just covers window creation and messaging, and leaves room to plug any other Win32 stuff on top of it.

Take a look at WinLamb source if you want to see how to build a native GUI.

Given my C++ Win32 background, the very first thing I tried was to write a native Win32 GUI app in Rust. It later became the WinSafe crate, which is strikingly similar to WinLamb C++ lib. The Rust experience was awesome. The correctness of the type system was something I really appreciated, things C++ cannot give you.

I write native Windows stuff sometimes, and I use Windigo, which I wrote based on my WinLamb C++ lib. It's a GUI system over raw Win32, so this has the disadvantage that you'll have to learn some Win32... but it has the advantage that you have the unleashed power of Win32 at your fingertips.