libui-ng
wxWidgets
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libui-ng
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Writing Gnome Apps with Swift
I remember a few years ago, a few really cool cross-platform UI libraries were starting to emerge such as libui [0] that got me excited. I've kind of lost track of them since then (libui itself went dormant for a while before this fork) so I am not sure how mature/useful they are now, but the potential for writing native desktop UIs in basically any language seemed like an absolute dream. Perhaps it's feasible for very basic things?
[0] https://github.com/libui-ng/libui-ng
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Ask HN: Fastest cross-platform GUI stack/strategy
Linux/Windows/MacOS: https://github.com/libui-ng/libui-ng
- libui-ng – a portable GUI library for C
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Zig instead of Rust.. and can it do these things?
There are a few libraries for GUI (for example, capy), and you can easily use any C libraries out there with @cImport (like libui), but it is still a work in progress.
- Libui-ng: a portable GUI library for C (fork of libui)
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Is it possible to build a gui which is both cross compatible and native?
It exists, at least for simple use cases. You are looking for libui-ng. wxWidgets of course also exists, but it is less a basic native wrapper than it is a complete toolkit emulating what doesn't exist where as libui seems to be more lowest common denominator (not sure but I think there might be a small amount of emulation, but not like wx I don't think).
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A lightweight, simple, fast, feature-filled, text editor written in C, and Lua
There's now libui-ng [1] which seems to be active and already has many wrappers
[1] https://libui-ng.github.io/libui-ng/
- Java 20 - Sneak Peek on the Foreign Function & Memory API (2nd preview)
- _why's Estate
- Libui-ng: Active fork of libui, a native cross-platfrom GUI SDK (+documentation)
wxWidgets
- Solitaire: Authentic remake of the Windows 95 original
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Building Apps with Tauri and Elixir
The Elixir programming language is no stranger to desktop applications as the language actually supports building them out of the box. It uses wxWidgets: a C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, macOS, Linux and other platforms with a single code base. But wxWidgets has a very complex API, and doesn’t solve issues that usually come with desktop applications around packaging.
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WxWidgets – open-source C++ cross platform GUI
Qt is also 100% open/free. In fact, both are available under the LGPL, just that wxWidgets also grants an exception to not have to distribute application sources even when statically linked:
https://github.com/wxWidgets/wxWidgets#licence
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Need for GUIs for bioinformatic tools?
But for big programs, ones written in C++? Good luck it won’t be easy at all. You might try wxwidgets or qt. I do not predict trying to click box-ify complex cli tools yielding much success.
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Create desktop application
In theory, you should be able to use FFI to interface with something like wxWindows, but you might again have problems on macOS, I don't know. And to me eyes, Wx looks a bit outdated.
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IUP – Cross platform C GUI library
This seems to be like the classic wxWidgets [1], i.e. it's an API that wraps the underlying platform's default toolkit. So on Windows it uses Windows' native controls, in Linux it seems to use GTK, and so on.
That means that the advantage is being able to write against one API, and get cross-platform compatibility, which can be nice. It also means (typically) being limited in what you can do to the least common denominator, or you (=the toolkit author) end up having to re-implement features from one platform that you want to expose but that are missing on some supported target(s). Or, of course, have an API with non-portable parts in it.
In any case, it means the "look and feel" is not the core feature of the API since that is going to be "like the target platform" and that is the point.
Given the origin, I guess Lua support is important too, here.
[1]: https://www.wxwidgets.org/
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Creating C++ windowed applications
- So, I found wxWidgets. Which looked good. However, when I followed some tutorials I was getting errors. Even when I copied and pasted the tutorial code. Furthermore, the library still doesn't seem to simplify the process much.
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What does this icon belong to? I've seen it used in many pieces of software, but I never found out what it actually is from.
It is the icon for WXWidgets, a programming toolkit for making user interfaces that work on Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
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Inkscape is hiring: Accelerating the GTK4 migration
In general, people will use a cross-platform library to port such applications. While QT will likely never really stabilize (I'd flag it unsustainable), the https://www.wxwidgets.org/ is able to be statically linked into commercial and opensource projects at no cost without tripping GPL.
"Hiring a senior C++ developer with GTK experience is costlier"
I think you are confusing skill valuation, and operational productivity. Some have an erroneous notion talent is interchangeable. Likewise, applicants with identical base skill-sets on their CV often mistakenly believe they even have long-term employment options (outsourced, youth tax credit churn, and or senior wage suppression).
Most FOSS people are easier to train, as most already can mitigate utter chaos already. =)
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Is it possible to build a gui which is both cross compatible and native?
There are a few like that in the C++ community. WxWidgets is the most famous/popular with this approach. But it is a library almost impossible to use in other languages because their api is heavily templated.
What are some alternatives?
raygui - A simple and easy-to-use immediate-mode gui library
imgui - Dear ImGui: Bloat-free Graphical User interface for C++ with minimal dependencies
nappgui - Cross-Platform C SDK (precompiled)
FLTK - FLTK - Fast Light Tool Kit - https://github.com/fltk/fltk - cross platform GUI development
Gtk4-tutorial - GTK 4 tutorial for beginners
gtkmm - Read-only mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtkmm
libui - Simple and portable (but not inflexible) GUI library in C that uses the native GUI technologies of each platform it supports.
GTK+ - Read-only mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk
nuklear - A single-header ANSI C immediate mode cross-platform GUI library
nana - a modern C++ GUI library
med - Micro Emacs in D