glimmer-dsl-libui VS tauri

glimmer-dsl-libui is a more actively maintained alternative

https://github.com/AndyObtiva/glimmer-dsl-libui

Another GitHub Pull Request for Rubio-Radio (open-source Internet radio app built with Ruby) got accepted and merged, which focused on displaying the currently playing song/program, loading all available radio stations (instead of a pre-defined limit), and enhanced full-text-search support including column-specific queries. The changes have been released in rubio-radio gem version 0.0.6. In fact, the enhanced full-text-search support is included in the latest version of Glimmer DSL for LibUI (Ruby Desktop Development GUI Library used to build Rubio-Radio) as part of the refined_table custom control for use in any projects, so software engineers get that feature for free now.

Recently, I blogged about how I contributed Pagination/Filtering support to Rubio-Radio, an Internet radio application built with Ruby and Glimmer DSL for LibUI.

I am particularly impressed by the fact that the developers of those apps fully went the distance by walking the walk, not just talking the talk, especially given that the developers of the first app (RubyCrumbler) were brand new to Glimmer DSL for LibUI and had to exercise great problem solving skills to finish their app on time for their needs.

# From: https://github.com/AndyObtiva/glimmer-dsl-libui#shape-coloring require 'glimmer-dsl-libui' class ShapeColoring include Glimmer::LibUI::Application COLOR_SELECTION = Glimmer::LibUI.interpret_color(:red) before_body { @shapes = [] } body { window('Shape Coloring', 200, 200) { margined false grid { label("Click a shape to select and\nchange color via color button") { left 0 top 0 hexpand true halign :center vexpand false } color_button { |cb| left 0 top 1 hexpand true vexpand false on_changed do @selected_shape&.fill = cb.color end } area { left 0 top 2 hexpand true vexpand true rectangle(0, 0, 600, 400) { # background shape fill :white } @shapes << colorable(:rectangle, 20, 20, 40, 20) { |shape| fill :lime } @shapes << colorable(:square, 80, 20, 20) { |shape| fill :blue } @shapes << colorable(:circle, 75, 70, 20, 20) { |shape| fill :green } @shapes << colorable(:arc, 120, 70, 40, 0, 145) { |shape| fill :orange } @shapes << colorable(:polygon, 120, 10, 120, 50, 150, 10, 150, 50) { fill :cyan } @shapes << colorable(:polybezier, 20, 40, 30, 100, 50, 80, 80, 110, 40, 120, 20, 120, 30, 91) { fill :pink } } } } } def colorable(shape_symbol, *args, &content) send(shape_symbol, *args) do |shape| on_mouse_up do |area_mouse_event| old_stroke = Glimmer::LibUI.interpret_color(shape.stroke).slice(:r, :g, :b) @shapes.each {|sh| sh.stroke = nil} @selected_shape = nil unless old_stroke == COLOR_SELECTION shape.stroke = COLOR_SELECTION.merge(thickness: 2) @selected_shape = shape end end content.call(shape) end end end ShapeColoring.launch

# From: https://github.com/AndyObtiva/glimmer-dsl-libui#class-based-custom-controls require 'glimmer-dsl-libui' require 'facets' Address = Struct.new(:street, :p_o_box, :city, :state, :zip_code) class FormField include Glimmer::LibUI::CustomControl options :model, :attribute body { entry { |e| label attribute.to_s.underscore.split('_').map(&:capitalize).join(' ') text <=> [model, attribute] } } end class AddressForm include Glimmer::LibUI::CustomControl options :address body { form { form_field(model: address, attribute: :street) form_field(model: address, attribute: :p_o_box) form_field(model: address, attribute: :city) form_field(model: address, attribute: :state) form_field(model: address, attribute: :zip_code) } } end class LabelPair include Glimmer::LibUI::CustomControl options :model, :attribute, :value body { horizontal_box { label(attribute.to_s.underscore.split('_').map(&:capitalize).join(' ')) label(value.to_s) { text <= [model, attribute] } } } end class AddressView include Glimmer::LibUI::CustomControl options :address body { vertical_box { address.each_pair do |attribute, value| label_pair(model: address, attribute: attribute, value: value) end } } end class ClassBasedCustomControls include Glimmer::LibUI::Application # alias: Glimmer::LibUI::CustomWindow before_body do @address1 = Address.new('123 Main St', '23923', 'Denver', 'Colorado', '80014') @address2 = Address.new('2038 Park Ave', '83272', 'Boston', 'Massachusetts', '02101') end body { window('Class-Based Custom Keyword') { margined true horizontal_box { vertical_box { label('Address 1') { stretchy false } address_form(address: @address1) horizontal_separator { stretchy false } label('Address 1 (Saved)') { stretchy false } address_view(address: @address1) } vertical_separator { stretchy false } vertical_box { label('Address 2') { stretchy false } address_form(address: @address2) horizontal_separator { stretchy false } label('Address 2 (Saved)') { stretchy false } address_view(address: @address2) } } } } end ClassBasedCustomControls.launch

Glimmer DSL for LibUI (Prerequisite-Free Ruby Desktop Development GUI Library): this gem just won a 2022 Fukuoka Ruby Special Award after getting judged directly by Matz (creator of Ruby) and the Fukuoka Ruby Award Competition Judges! How is that for a Year of The Ruby Desktop accomplishment!!?!

Another reason why this library was created was to address the need for supporting automated declarative drag and drop features in Glimmer DSL for LibUI coming soon (right now, it supports manually implementing drag and drop with area listeners out of the box).

Hi, dear Tauri! Long time no see. I published my first post, Developing a Desktop Application via Rust and NextJS. The Tauri Way almost a year ago. Since then, Tauri has become stronger. I'm happy about that! And now, I am very pleased to make a useful contribution to the Tauri community. As a full-stack developer, I frequently face situations where I need to start a DB-based UI project as fast as possible. It's stressful if I need to start the project from 100% scratch. I prefer to keep some boilerplates on hand, which will save me time and nerves and will be the subject of this article.

Hey Thanks!

Just electron & vite. I might actually migrate off electron, Tauri (https://tauri.app/) seems to be getting more stable and it's gotten great reviews.

I think this is the boilerplate I used though https://github.com/cawa-93/vite-electron-builder.

Well the great thing about WebAssembly is that you can port QT or anything else to be at a layer below -- thanks to WebAssembly Interface Types[0] and the Component Model specification that works underneath that.

To over-simplify, the Component Model manages language interop, and WIT constrains the boundaries with interfaces.

IMO the problem here is defining a 90% solution for most window, tab, button, etc management, then building embeddings in QT, Flutter/Skia, and other lower level engines. Getting a good cross-platform way of doing data passing, triggering re-renders, serializing window state is probably the meat of the interesting work.

On top of that, you really need great UX. This is normally where projects fall short -- why should I use this solution instead of something like Tauri[2] which is excellent or Electron?

[0]: https://github.com/WebAssembly/component-model/blob/main/des...

[1]: https://github.com/WebAssembly/component-model/blob/main/des...

[2]: https://tauri.app/

Welcome to the 2nd episode of our series “Building with Tauri”, where we chat with developers who build amazing projects and products using Tauri.

Tauri seemed like the "thing" I should switch to because everybody loves Rust (heh), and because it ships significantly smaller apps.

First of all, I will be using npm as my package manager but feel free to use whatever you prefer. Find more info here.

Today I'm talking about Tauri! Do you know all the various tools that allow you to develop native applications starting from web languages? They often need an intermediate compilation, in the middle of which you end up encountering various problems not always transparent and directly solvable with a language mostly detached from native development. On the other hand, there's still the ease of developing attractive and easily usable interfaces, which are more difficult to develop with low level languages.