How to learn writing a Wayland compositor?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/rust

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  • cage

    A Wayland kiosk

  • Maybe starting with reimplementing something like this: https://github.com/cage-kiosk/cage would be the easiest?

  • smithay

    A smithy for rusty wayland compositors

  • Understand Wayland concepts: Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and principles of Wayland. This will help you gain a solid understanding of how the system works. You can refer to the official Wayland documentation (https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/) and the Wayland book (https://wayland-book.com/). Learn Rust: If you're not already proficient in Rust, take some time to learn the language. The Rust Book (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/) is a great place to start. Study existing Wayland compositors: Since you mentioned Anvil and smallvil, you can study their source code to gain insights into how they're designed and implemented. Try to understand the structure and how different components interact with each other. Dive into Smithay: Smithay (https://github.com/Smithay/smithay) is a Rust library for building Wayland compositors. Familiarize yourself with the library and its components. You can start by studying the provided examples and reading the API documentation. Learn graphics programming: Since you're interested in graphics effects, you'll need to learn about graphics programming concepts, such as shaders, framebuffers, and texturing. Vulkan (https://www.vulkan.org/) is a popular graphics API that you can use with Rust. Check out the following resources to learn more about Vulkan and graphics programming in Rust: Vulkan Tutorial (https://vulkan-tutorial.com/) gfx-rs (https://github.com/gfx-rs/gfx), a Rust graphics library Vulkano (https://github.com/vulkano-rs/vulkano), a safe, pure-Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API Start small: Break down the compositor project into smaller, manageable tasks. Begin by implementing basic functionality, like setting up a window and drawing simple shapes. Gradually add more features, such as input handling and window management. Ask for help: Join the Wayland and Rust communities to ask questions and seek advice. You can find them on forums, mailing lists, and chat platforms like Discord or IRC. The Wayland mailing list (https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/wayland-devel) and the Rust programming subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/) are good places to start. Iterate and experiment: As you progress, keep experimenting with different graphics effects and shaders. Try to implement the features you're interested in, such as blur, window previews, and window switching.

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  • Vulkan-Headers

    Vulkan header files and API registry

  • Understand Wayland concepts: Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and principles of Wayland. This will help you gain a solid understanding of how the system works. You can refer to the official Wayland documentation (https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/) and the Wayland book (https://wayland-book.com/). Learn Rust: If you're not already proficient in Rust, take some time to learn the language. The Rust Book (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/) is a great place to start. Study existing Wayland compositors: Since you mentioned Anvil and smallvil, you can study their source code to gain insights into how they're designed and implemented. Try to understand the structure and how different components interact with each other. Dive into Smithay: Smithay (https://github.com/Smithay/smithay) is a Rust library for building Wayland compositors. Familiarize yourself with the library and its components. You can start by studying the provided examples and reading the API documentation. Learn graphics programming: Since you're interested in graphics effects, you'll need to learn about graphics programming concepts, such as shaders, framebuffers, and texturing. Vulkan (https://www.vulkan.org/) is a popular graphics API that you can use with Rust. Check out the following resources to learn more about Vulkan and graphics programming in Rust: Vulkan Tutorial (https://vulkan-tutorial.com/) gfx-rs (https://github.com/gfx-rs/gfx), a Rust graphics library Vulkano (https://github.com/vulkano-rs/vulkano), a safe, pure-Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API Start small: Break down the compositor project into smaller, manageable tasks. Begin by implementing basic functionality, like setting up a window and drawing simple shapes. Gradually add more features, such as input handling and window management. Ask for help: Join the Wayland and Rust communities to ask questions and seek advice. You can find them on forums, mailing lists, and chat platforms like Discord or IRC. The Wayland mailing list (https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/wayland-devel) and the Rust programming subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/) are good places to start. Iterate and experiment: As you progress, keep experimenting with different graphics effects and shaders. Try to implement the features you're interested in, such as blur, window previews, and window switching.

  • gfx

    [maintenance mode] A low-overhead Vulkan-like GPU API for Rust.

  • Understand Wayland concepts: Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and principles of Wayland. This will help you gain a solid understanding of how the system works. You can refer to the official Wayland documentation (https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/) and the Wayland book (https://wayland-book.com/). Learn Rust: If you're not already proficient in Rust, take some time to learn the language. The Rust Book (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/) is a great place to start. Study existing Wayland compositors: Since you mentioned Anvil and smallvil, you can study their source code to gain insights into how they're designed and implemented. Try to understand the structure and how different components interact with each other. Dive into Smithay: Smithay (https://github.com/Smithay/smithay) is a Rust library for building Wayland compositors. Familiarize yourself with the library and its components. You can start by studying the provided examples and reading the API documentation. Learn graphics programming: Since you're interested in graphics effects, you'll need to learn about graphics programming concepts, such as shaders, framebuffers, and texturing. Vulkan (https://www.vulkan.org/) is a popular graphics API that you can use with Rust. Check out the following resources to learn more about Vulkan and graphics programming in Rust: Vulkan Tutorial (https://vulkan-tutorial.com/) gfx-rs (https://github.com/gfx-rs/gfx), a Rust graphics library Vulkano (https://github.com/vulkano-rs/vulkano), a safe, pure-Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API Start small: Break down the compositor project into smaller, manageable tasks. Begin by implementing basic functionality, like setting up a window and drawing simple shapes. Gradually add more features, such as input handling and window management. Ask for help: Join the Wayland and Rust communities to ask questions and seek advice. You can find them on forums, mailing lists, and chat platforms like Discord or IRC. The Wayland mailing list (https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/wayland-devel) and the Rust programming subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/) are good places to start. Iterate and experiment: As you progress, keep experimenting with different graphics effects and shaders. Try to implement the features you're interested in, such as blur, window previews, and window switching.

  • vulkano

    Safe and rich Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API

  • Understand Wayland concepts: Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and principles of Wayland. This will help you gain a solid understanding of how the system works. You can refer to the official Wayland documentation (https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/) and the Wayland book (https://wayland-book.com/). Learn Rust: If you're not already proficient in Rust, take some time to learn the language. The Rust Book (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/) is a great place to start. Study existing Wayland compositors: Since you mentioned Anvil and smallvil, you can study their source code to gain insights into how they're designed and implemented. Try to understand the structure and how different components interact with each other. Dive into Smithay: Smithay (https://github.com/Smithay/smithay) is a Rust library for building Wayland compositors. Familiarize yourself with the library and its components. You can start by studying the provided examples and reading the API documentation. Learn graphics programming: Since you're interested in graphics effects, you'll need to learn about graphics programming concepts, such as shaders, framebuffers, and texturing. Vulkan (https://www.vulkan.org/) is a popular graphics API that you can use with Rust. Check out the following resources to learn more about Vulkan and graphics programming in Rust: Vulkan Tutorial (https://vulkan-tutorial.com/) gfx-rs (https://github.com/gfx-rs/gfx), a Rust graphics library Vulkano (https://github.com/vulkano-rs/vulkano), a safe, pure-Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API Start small: Break down the compositor project into smaller, manageable tasks. Begin by implementing basic functionality, like setting up a window and drawing simple shapes. Gradually add more features, such as input handling and window management. Ask for help: Join the Wayland and Rust communities to ask questions and seek advice. You can find them on forums, mailing lists, and chat platforms like Discord or IRC. The Wayland mailing list (https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/wayland-devel) and the Rust programming subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/) are good places to start. Iterate and experiment: As you progress, keep experimenting with different graphics effects and shaders. Try to implement the features you're interested in, such as blur, window previews, and window switching.

  • book

    The Rust Programming Language

  • Understand Wayland concepts: Familiarize yourself with the basic concepts and principles of Wayland. This will help you gain a solid understanding of how the system works. You can refer to the official Wayland documentation (https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/) and the Wayland book (https://wayland-book.com/). Learn Rust: If you're not already proficient in Rust, take some time to learn the language. The Rust Book (https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/) is a great place to start. Study existing Wayland compositors: Since you mentioned Anvil and smallvil, you can study their source code to gain insights into how they're designed and implemented. Try to understand the structure and how different components interact with each other. Dive into Smithay: Smithay (https://github.com/Smithay/smithay) is a Rust library for building Wayland compositors. Familiarize yourself with the library and its components. You can start by studying the provided examples and reading the API documentation. Learn graphics programming: Since you're interested in graphics effects, you'll need to learn about graphics programming concepts, such as shaders, framebuffers, and texturing. Vulkan (https://www.vulkan.org/) is a popular graphics API that you can use with Rust. Check out the following resources to learn more about Vulkan and graphics programming in Rust: Vulkan Tutorial (https://vulkan-tutorial.com/) gfx-rs (https://github.com/gfx-rs/gfx), a Rust graphics library Vulkano (https://github.com/vulkano-rs/vulkano), a safe, pure-Rust wrapper around the Vulkan API Start small: Break down the compositor project into smaller, manageable tasks. Begin by implementing basic functionality, like setting up a window and drawing simple shapes. Gradually add more features, such as input handling and window management. Ask for help: Join the Wayland and Rust communities to ask questions and seek advice. You can find them on forums, mailing lists, and chat platforms like Discord or IRC. The Wayland mailing list (https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/wayland-devel) and the Rust programming subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/) are good places to start. Iterate and experiment: As you progress, keep experimenting with different graphics effects and shaders. Try to implement the features you're interested in, such as blur, window previews, and window switching.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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